António Nobre to referee Benfica v Sporting, uproar at Luz | OneFootball

António Nobre will be the referee appointed to officiate the derby on December 5th. As revealed on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 3rd, the referee has been chosen by the Refereeing Council to oversee the important league match between Benfica and Sporting. However, the choice is not unanimous and has caused some unease among Benfica supporters.

According to the newspaper Record, in today’s edition, December 3rd, António Nobre was chosen, putting an end to doubts before the derby. The rest of the refereeing team will include Nélson Pereira and Francisco Pereira as assistants. Miguel Nogueira will be the fourth official for the match.

Rui Costa, in turn, will be responsible for VAR at Estádio da Luz and will be assisted by Paulo Brás (AVAR). Nevertheless, the appointment of António Nobre has sparked a wave of outrage among Benfica fans, since the referee was directly involved in an incident that cost Benfica their run for the national championship title in the 2024/25 season.

At the time, the referee was present at the match between Benfica and Arouca, also at Estádio da Luz, which ended in a 2-2 draw. In that match, António Nobre generated a huge wave of protest by awarding a non-existent penalty to Arouca, for an alleged trip supposedly committed… with the head of Nicolás Otamendi. He ended up receiving a negative rating.

Luís Godinho, who was another name considered by the Portuguese Football Federation’s Refereeing Council, was appointed to officiate the match between Tondela and Porto. The match between Benfica and Sporting is scheduled for next Friday, December 5th, with kick-off set for 8:15 PM.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.