A Swedish refereeing team will referee the first match between Levski and AEK Athens in the Champions League playoffs. The match is on Tuesday, August 18, at 22:00 at the National Stadium “Vasil Levski“. The main referee will be 37-year-old Glen Nyberg, who already has an unpleasant memory of Levski. On August 1, 2019, he refereed the home game of the “Blues“ against AEK Larnaca in the Europa League, which ended in a heavy loss with 0:4.
Nyberg's assistants will again be his compatriots Mahbod Beigi and Andreas Söderqvist, who were part of the same refereeing team in the match with AEK Larnaca seven years ago. The fourth referee will be Adam Ladeback, also from Sweden.
The Dutchmen Dennis Higler and Erwin Blank have been appointed to the VAR system.
The upcoming match will be Nyberg's second since his participation in the 2026 World Cup. Last week, he refereed the match between Red Star Belgrade and Hapoel Beer Sheva, which the visitors won 2-0 in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.
At the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada, the Swede received three appointments. He refereed the matches Ghana – Panama (1-0) and Curacao – Ivory Coast (0-2) in the group stage, as well as the match in the 1/16 finals between Spain and Austria (3-0).
Nyberg also has other matches with Bulgarian teams. In September 2021, he was the main referee in CSKA's 1-5 loss to Roma in Conference League. Just two months later, he also refereed the Braga – Ludogorets (4:2) match in the group stage of the Europa League.
The Swedish referee has also refereed a match for the Bulgarian national team. On September 7, 2025, he refereed the world qualifier against Georgia, which the Bulgarians lost 0:3.
Thus, Glenn Nyberg becomes a referee with a fairly serious history with Bulgarian football, and for Levski he will be a particularly familiar name because of the heavy defeat by AEK Larnaca in 2019.