Milorad Mažić

Mažić refereed the Germany vs. Portugal group stage match in Salvador da Bahia. In the 11th minute of the contest, he awarded a penalty shot to Germany,[2][3] and later, in the 37th minute with Germany now up 2–0, Mažić showed red card to Portugal's Pepe.[4][5] In the next game, Mažić refereed the Argentina vs. Iran group stage match in Belo Horizonte.[6] After the game, Iranian manager Carlos Queiroz, unsatisfied with the referee, was quoted saying: "Will this man be able to sleep tonight? Or for the rest of his life?".[7]

Having refereed the Champions League round-of-16 return leg in March 2015 between Borussia Dortmund and Juventus, Mažić was awarded the quarter-final first leg between Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid.[8] The match ended 0–0 and he handed out five yellow cards. After the match Mario Suárez, who received one of the cards, said "The referee is very bad. They can't use a Serbian referee for these type of games". This was taken by some as an ethnic slur. Mario Suárez later apologized, tweeting that he just meant "that games of this magnitude should be given to a referee from one of the big leagues". However, after that match, Mažić was positively evaluated.[9][10] Mažić later refereed the Europa League semi-final return leg in mid-May, his third time being involved in a match at this stage of competition, between Dnipro and Napoli that was played in Kiev instead of Dnipropetrovsk due to the Ukrainian conflict.

In July 2015 Mažić got hired by the Egyptian FA to referee the country's biggest league derby between Cairo cross-town rivals Al Ahly and Zamalek. The match of the Egyptian Premier League was played on 22 July 2015 in a neutral venue in Alexandria without a crowd.[11][12] Mažić was appointed in February 2016 to referee the UEFA Europa League match between Manchester United and Liverpool at the Old Trafford Stadium, and was the only non-British referee alongside Carlos Velasco Carballo to referee the derby between these two giants.

UEFA Referees Committee appointed the Serbian referee team, led by Mažić, to run matches at the Euro 2016 in France. The Serbian referee team was firstly appointed to referee the Republic of Ireland vs Sweden group stage match at the Stade de France in Paris on 13 June, which ended 1–1. They refereed the match on 17 June in group D between Spain and Turkey at the Alianz Riviera in Nice which Spain won 3–0. In the next phase of the Cup, the Serbian team was appointed to run the Round of 16 match between Hungary and Belgium at the Stadium Municipal in Toulouse, which the Belgians won 4–0.

During the tournament, Mažić also worked as a fourth official twice, at the Poland vs Portugal and France vs Iceland quarter-final matches. The general impression was that Mažić refereed successfully in all three of his matches, keeping constant quality and even enhancing it. Thus, he was proposed, beside Mark Clattenburg from England and Viktor Kassai from Hungary, to be a candidate for the final match. Ultimately, Clattenburg was appointed to be the referee at the final match.[13]

Mažić and his assistants Milovan Ristić and Dalibor Đurđević receiving their awards after the final match of 2017 Confederations Cup

At the beginning of the 2016–17 season, the UEFA Referees Committee appointed Mažić to officiate the 2016 UEFA Super Cup between Real Madrid and Sevilla at the Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim, Norway.[14] After an exciting match, Real Madrid won hitting a goal at the very end of the 120 minutes lasting match.

Mažić refereed the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Final match between Chile and Germany played in Saint Petersburg on 2 July 2017; Germany upset Chile in a hard-fought, physical match winning 1–0.[15]

On 26 May 2018, Mažić and his assistants Milovan Ristić and Dalibor Đurđević refereed the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Kiev.[16] He was the last official to referee a Champions League Final without VAR

WC 2018: Mexico - Korea

On 29 March 2018, FIFA announced that he will officiate some matches at 2018 FIFA World Cup along with Ristić and Đurđević as assistant referees.[17]

The Serbian team officiated three matches. The first match was between South Korea and Mexico in Rostov-on-Don on 23 June. After that they were appointed to referee the match between Senegal and Colombia in Samara on 28 June. At the next phase, the Serbian team was appointed to officiate quarter-final match between Brazil and Belgium in Kazan on 6 July. Mažić was once the fourth official at the tournament.

Mažić was very successful in all three of his matches.[18][19][20] Serbian team stayed until the end of the World Cup with other candidates for the final match. Due to Croatia playing in the finals, the Serbian team was not eligible for the final match.

On 23 February 2019, it was announced that Mažić had been hired by CFA to become one of the professional referees in China. The same year he would be selected as the best referee of the Chinese Super League and thus become the first foreigner to win that recognition.[21]