PAOK make their second trip ever to Belarus for a European game. On 27 November 2014, they had prevailed 2-0 over FC Dinamo Minsk for matchday 5 of their UEFA Europa League group with a brace by Stefanos Athanasiadis.

As Dinamo Minsk’s home ground was under construction back then, the match was held in Borisov Arena. Therefore, PAOK return now to a familiar venue.

There is a second, more remarkable coincidence though. PAOK find themselves again in Belarus, in the same venue and with the same referee. Four years later, Austrian Robert Schörgenhofer has once again been assigned PAOK’s match in Belarus.

Born in February 1973 in Vorarlberg, Austria, he got into refereeing since the age of 18 and earned his FIFA badge in 2007. In the summer of 2011, he was promoted to Elite Development tier of UEFA and got to officiate games in two international tournaments that summer: the final stages of Euro U21 and FIFA U20 World Cup. In September 2011, he took charge of his first UEFA Champions League encounter, but returned to category A in 2012.

Since then, he has officiated many group stage encounters of the UEFA Europa League. He also often referees in European qualifiers.

Apart from that match of PAOK in Belarus, Schörgenhofer has also handled Panathinaikos’s 3-0 away loss to Lazio, a 2-0 defeat of Olympiakos in Dnipro’s ground and PAS Giannina’s 2-1 home loss to AZ Alkmaar.

The Austrian referee is not associated with fond memories of BATE Borisov. Last season, he took charge of their 6-0 defeat in London by Arsenal.

The 45-year-old will be accompanied by Markus Gutschi and Roland Riedel, the assistant referees, with Andreas Witschnigg acting as fourth official. Markus Hameter and Rene Eisner complete the team as additional assistant referees. Austrian Gevorg Hovhannisyan is the Referee Observer for the match.