Kevin Blom will take charge of Thursday’s UEFA Europa League encounter between PAOK and EA Guingamp that will determine which side will advance to the knock out stage of the competition. The 40-year old Dutch referee will be accompanied by Patrick Langkamp and Bas Van Dongen, the assistant referees, with Mario Diks acting as fourth official. Peter Janssen and Dennis Higler complete the team as additional assistant referees.

Aleh Chykun from Belarus is the UEFA Referee Observer and Michał Listkiewicz from Poland is the UEFA delegate of the encounter. The latter had the same function in last season’s group stage match of PAOK against AZ at Alkmaar.

Blom is considered one of the Netherlands’ best and works also as a referee instructor for the Dutch football federation. He has been an international referee since 2004 and was almost immediately included by UEFA in their elite refereeing group. However, a bad day at the office in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying encounter between the Czech Republic and Scotland saw him relegated. He was not among the referees proposed by KNVB for the final stages of major tournaments (UEFA Euro 2012, FIFA World Cup 2014), nor has he officiated UEFA Champions League encounters since.

Nevertheless, Greek clubs and national teams boast a good record with him as referee: Panathinaikos – FC Dinamo București 3-0 (16.12.2009), Asteras Tripolis – SK Rapid Wien 1-1 (1.8.2013), Portugal – Greece 0-0 (friendly encounter, 21.5.2014), Hungary – Greece 3-2 (friendly encounter, 24.5.2008) and Germany U19 – Greece U19 2-3 (24.7.2007).

On international level, he was assigned two UEFA Europa League games this season (SSC Napoli – AC Sparta Praha 3-1 and Rio Ave FC – IF Elfsborg 1-0). During his career, he has handled 63 international encounters, 249 Eredivisie matches and 9 Jupiler Pro League games.