UEFA has confirmed that Bjorn Kuipers will referee the Euro 2020 final at Wembley on Sunday night. The 48-year-old Dutchman has already refereed 3 games in the Euro 2020. He also featured as the fourth official in the group stage match between England and Croatia.
Kuipers will be the first Dutchman to referee in a European Championship final. He began working as an international referee in 2006 has taken charge of 7 UEFA competition finals since. He was also in charge of the 2014 Champions League final tie between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. Apart from this, he has also refereed 2 Europa League finals (2013 and 2018).
Bjorn Kuipers: The world’s richest referee!
Kuipers was worth around £11.5 million in 2016, as reported by the Daily Mail. He had co-founded a supermarket chain, Jumbo Kuipers, in his home country. Kuipers set up the Jumbo chain after he completed his business administration degree from the Radboud University, Nijmegen. He made his professional refereeing debut back in 2002. The Jumbo supermarket chain operates in Netherlands and Belgium and Kuipers also owns one of the local Jumbo stores.
The Sun states that Kuipers was named the best Jumbo franchisee in the Netherlands in 2016. This showcases the veteran’s impressive business sense. The Dutch supermarket chain sponsors Formula One icon Max Verstappen. This makes Kuipers millions every year. But he still wouldn’t miss the opportunity to referee the biggest matches in football. The Euro 2020 final between England and Italy will surely be a highlight to his distinguished refereeing career.
Bjorn Kuipers’ England refereeing History
Kuipers has refereed the Three Lions at the 2014 World Cup when they faced the same opponents, Italy. Italy defeated England 2-1 in Manaus when Kuipers was last in charge. In addition, he was also in charge when Germany defeated England 4-0 in the 2009 U21 Euro final. He has of course not been bringing much luck to England one might say. But English fans can only hope that this time Kuipers brings more luck to England at Wembley.
Other England vs Italy officials
Following is the full refereeing team, as per UEFA:
- Referee: Björn Kuipers (Netherlands)
- Assistants: Sander van Roekel, Erwin Zeinstra (both Netherlands)
- Fourth official: Carlos Del Cerro Grande (Spain)
- Reserve Assistant Referee: Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez (Spain)
- VAR Assistants
