The FA Cup semifinal between Manchester United and Brighton and Hove Albion at the Wembley Stadium is being officiated by referee Craig Pawson.
He is joined by Ian Hussin and Marc Perry as his assistants, Robert Jones as fourth official, and Michael Oliver in the VAR room
The 44-year-old is a Football Association referee and primarily officiates matches in the Premier League. He started refereeing in 1993 and has been a regular in the Football league since the 2012-13 season.
In Europe, too, Pawson has been a regular in the Champions League, Europa League as well as the Conference League. He created controversy recently in the Conference League when he sent off Lazio defender against CFR Cluj.
Lazio manager Maurizio Sarri had hit out at him, calling him unsuitable.
“We’re unfortunate that a referee not up to officiating in Europe has taken charge,” Sarri was quoted telling DAZN. “He changed the match by showing the red card for a foul that wasn’t a clear opportunity to score a goal. He then continued to show some strange yellow cards.
“But on a night when everything seemed to be going in the wrong direction, we still obtained an acceptable result.”
In the FA Cup semifinal, Pawson booked Casemiro in the 36th minute for a late aggressive challenge on Alexis Mac Allister. In the second half, he booked Luke Shaw for a challenge on Moises Caicedo while Kaoru Mitoma went into the book for Brighton.
Pawson, incidentally, was also the referee in the Manchester United vs Brighton match in 2018 where the latter had won 1-0 to ensure safety from relegation, in the Premier League.
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