Milorad Mažić

Milorad Mažić

Born	(1973-03-23) 23 March 1973 Vrbas, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
Domestic
Years	League
2009–present	SuperLiga
2009–2012	Liga I
2014	Qatar Stars League
2015	Egyptian Premier League
International
Years	League	Role
2009–present	FIFA listed	Referee
2013–present	UEFA Elite	Referee

Milorad Mažić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милорад Мажић; born 23 March 1973) is an international association football referee from Serbia. He became a FIFA referee in 2009. Mažić officiated numerous matches in the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League, as well as 2016 UEFA Super Cup Final. He was selected as a referee for the 2014 FIFA World Cup^[1], UEFA Euro 2016^[2] and the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Career

During the summer of 2006 Mažić was selected to referee the Serbian Super League matches for the upcoming 2006–07 season. His first international appearance happened in March 2009 at the qualifications for the UEFA tournament for players under 17 years of age (U17), and also at the tournament U17, where he officiated the match between Germany and Italy. Soon thereafter, he refereed the friendly match^[3] Montenegro vs. Wales, which was refereed on 12 August 2009. On 7 September 2009. Mažić acquired his first experience in the European club competition, refereeing the return leg of the Europa League, first qualifying phase tie between the home team Llanelli and visiting Motherwell. 

In total, Mažić refereed 12 league matches that season in Serbia's top flight. During the same season in October 2009 he refereed his first international match — a 2010 World Cup qualifier between Finland and Wales in Helsinki. The same season also saw him referee a Romanian Liga I match between FC Politehnica Timișoara and Dinamo București on 23 November 2009.

In 2008, Mažić refereed for the first time the first Serbian league popularly called Eternal derby between Belgrade football clubs Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan; throughout the ears, he achieved the absolute record (both in former Yugoslav and Serbian football history), refereeing 12 matches between Belgrade’s "eternal rivals".

In the UEFA Champions League^[4] Milorad Mažić first appeared at the Camp Nou Stadium on 19 September 2012, refereeing Barcelona vs Spartak (Moscow) match (3:2). During the same season, as referee of the UEFA Elite-development category, he officiated one of the final matches of the European League – at the “Sucru Saracoglu” Stadium in Istanbul, on 25 April 2013, which was a precedent for a referee of the Elite-development category. He also refereed the semi-final first leg match between Fenerbahce SK and Benfica. Soon thereafter, following his success in that match, he was awarded the UEFA Elite category in June 2013. He was appointed in the season 2015/16 to referee the UEFA Europa League match between Manchester United and Liverpool at the Old Trafford Stadium, and was the only referee (apart from Carlos Velasco Carballo) to referee the derby between these two giants who was not from Britain.^[5]

In early April 2014, Mažić was selected as the referee of the Champions League quarter-final first leg match between PSG and Chelsea at Parc des Princes. A month later, he refereed a Europa League semi-final match, the return leg between Valencia and Sevilla at Mestalla.

Having refereed the round-of-16 return leg in March 2015 between Borussia Dortmund and Juventus, Mažić was awarded the Champions League quarter-final first leg between Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid. The match ended 0–0 and he handed out five yellow cards. After the match Suárez, who received one of the cards, said "The referee is very bad. They can't use a Serbian referee for these type of games". This was taken by some as an ethnic slur. Suárez later apologized, tweeting that he just meant "that games of this magnitude should be given to a referee from one of the big leagues". However, after that match, Mažić was positively evaluated.

Mažić later refereed the Europa League semi-final return leg in mid-May, his third time being involved in a match at this stage of competition, between Dnipro and Napoli that was played in Kiev instead of Dnipropetrovsk due to the Ukrainian conflict.

In July 2015 Mažić got hired by the Egyptian FA to referee the country's biggest league derby between Cairo cross-town rivals Al Ahly and Zamalek. The match of the Egyptian Premier League was played on 22 July 2015 in a neutral venue in Alexandria without a crowd.

2014 World Cup

Mažić refereed the Germany^[6] vs. Portugal group stage match in Salvador da Bahia. In the 11th minute of the contest, he awarded a penalty shot to Germany,^[7][8] and later, in the 37th minute with Germany now up 2–0, Mažić showed red card to Portugal's Pepe.^[9][10] In the next game Mažić refereed the Argentina vs. Iran group stage match in Belo Horizonte.^[11]

Euro 2016

UEFA Referees Committee appointed the Serbian referee team,^[12] led by Milorad Mažić, to run matches at the 2016 European Cup in France. The Serbian referee team was firstly appointed to referee the match Republic of Ireland vs Sweden in grou^[13]p E at the Stade de France in Paris on 13 June, which ended without a winner (1–1). They refereed the following match on 17 June in group D at the stadium Alianz Riviera in Nice, between Spain and Turkey, which Spain won convincingly (3–0). In the next^[14] phase of the Cup, the Serbian team was^[15] appointed to run the match between Hungary and Belgium at the Stadium Municipal in Toulouse, which^[16] Belgians won with a convincing score (4–0). Mažić was also a fourth official twice, at the matches Poland vs Portugal and France vs Island. The general impression was that Mažić refereed successfully all three matches, keeping^[17] constant quality and even enhancing it. Thus, he was proposed, beside Mark Clattenburg from England and Viktor Kassai from Hungary, to be a candidate for the final match (Mark Clattenburg was appointed to be the referee at the final match).^[18]

2016–17

Mažić and his assistances are receiving their awards after the final match of 2017 Confederations Cup

At the beginning of the 2016/17 season, the UEFA Referees Committee appointed Mažić to officiate the 2016 UEFA Super Cup between Real Madrid and Sevilla at the Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim, Norway. After an exciting match, Real Madrid won hitting a goal at the very end of the 120 minutes lasting match.

Milorad Mažić was chosen by the FIFA Referees Committee to be on the list of referee candidates for the next World Cup in Russia, 2018. Mažić was selected to referee the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Final match between Chile and Germany played at Saint Petersburg on 2 July 2017; Germany upset Chile in a hard-fought, physical match (1–0).

References