Istvan Kovacs will referee the match Slovakia - Northern Ireland in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup

The match in the 9th round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, between Slovakia and Northern Ireland, will be officiated by a team of Romanian referees on Friday at 21:45, at the Kosicka Futbalova Arena in Kosice. Istvan Kovacs will be the central referee, assisted by Mihai Marica and Ferencz Tunyogi on the two lines. Radu Petrescu will serve as the fourth official. In the VAR room, Cătălin Popa will act as Video Assistant Referee, while Marcel Bîrsan will be Assistant VAR. The supervision of the refereeing will be carried out by Clayton Pisani from Malta, and the UEFA delegate for this match is Yuriy Barbash from Ukraine.