Born on 29 January 1977 in Amiens, France, Ruddy Buquet is also sales representative by trade. He started his refereeing career in 2005 in France’s second tier and was promoted to Ligue 1 in 2008.

He earned his FIFA badge in 2011 and started taking charge of UEFA competitions’ games and friendly encounters between national sides. On 21 July 2011 he was appointed for the first time in a UEFA Europa League 2nd qualifying round match, FK Sarajevo earning a 2-0 home win over Örebro SK.

On 10 December 2014, he refereed in the game between FC Porto and FC Shakhtar Donetsk for the UEFA Champions League group stage and, since then, has also been taken charge of several knock-out matches in the UEFA Champions League.

It’s not the first time that Buquet and PAOK cross paths. At the start of his international career, he was appointed additional assistant referee in the “Double-Headed Eagle’s” match in Russia against PFC CSKA Moscow for the UEFA Europa League round of 32. The Thessaloniki outfit played a 1-1 draw, but got eliminated having lost the Toumba leg 0-1.

PAOK return to Moscow seven years later and Buquet is once again there, in a rare coincidence.

The French referee will be accompanied in Otkritie Arena by his countrymen Guillaume Debart and Julien Pacelli, the assistant referees, with Jérôme Miguelgorry acting as fourth official.