England vs Croatia referee: Cuneyt Cakir to officiate World Cup semi-final

Standard Sport9 July 2018

Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir will take charge of England's World Cup 2018 semi-final against Croatia on Wednesday.

The 41-year-old officiated Barcelona's 2015 Champions League final 3-1 win over Juventus and oversaw the Holland versus Argentina last-four clash in Brazil four years ago.

Cakir also refereed Sir Alex Ferguson's last match in the Champions League in 2013, provoking the Scot's anger after sending off Nani for a high tackle in the last-16 defeat to Real Madrid.

Ferguson, who opted not to attend his mandatory post-match press conference, said it was "hard to keep faith" after the decision.

Prior to the match he had told his backroom staff he was concerned Cakir had a tendency to send off players of English-based teams having dismissed seven but never any from teams playing against them.

Those players Cakir red-carded included Chelsea's John Terry, Gary Cahill and Steven Gerrard.

Cakir has been involved in controversy at this World Cup - Nigeria felt they should have had a penalty in their 2-1 defeat to Argentina, with the incident not reviewed by officials.

Reporting by Press Association.

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