Alyaksey Mikalayevich Kulbakow ( be, Аляксей Мікалаевіч Кульбакоў; born 27 December 1979) is a Belarusian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

, who is a listed international referee since 2005. He is a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

-licensed and UEFA elite group referee. He is the only Belarusian official who regularly takes part in the group stages of UEFA club competitions. Kulbakov started his refereeing career very early – at the age of 16. He went through all Belarusian divisions quite quickly and has officiated his first top league match in Belarus in 2003 when he was only 23. It happened quite often those times that Kulbakov was the youngest man on the pitch. Kulbakow became a FIFA-licensed referee just two years later, in 2005, at the age of 25 (minimal possible age for FIFA referees). His debut in international A-team level took place 12 September 2007 when Cyprus won 3–0 against San-Marino in EURO 2008 qualifier. In 2008, he was selected as one of the 19 participants of the UEFA Talents and Mentors program for perspective European referees. During the next two years (2008 and 2009) in the framework of this program Alexey officiated all his UEFA matches under supervision of the same referee observer Andreas Schluchter from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Starting from the season 2009/2010 Kulbakov regularly officiates matches in the UEFA Europa League group stage. His first match at this level took place 17 September 2009 CFR Cluj won 2–0 against

København Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

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. He is also in charge in A-team international matches, including

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and

2014 World Cup qualifiers The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil. The remaining 31 places were determined b ...

FIFA
"Match Report – Netherlands – Andorra 3:0 (2:0)"
. 12 October 2012. Retrieved on 2 May 2013. as well as

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

UEFA EURO The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

qualifiers. Kulbakov has missed the first half of 2013 national championship due to injury. In June 2013 Kulbakov together with 5 other referees was selected to officiate the final tournament of UEFA U-19 EURO 2013 which took place in

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

in July 2013.

References

External links

* * 1979 births Living people People from Gomel Belarusian football referees UEFA Europa League referees UEFA Champions League referees {{Belarus-footy-bio-stub