România versus Polonia will go ahead with Sebastian Gishamer in the middle, and that appointment gives the match a very clear officiating storyline before kick-off. UEFA has assigned the Austrian referee to the Nations League game at 21:45 at Arena Națională in București, with an all-Austrian team alongside him.
Gishamer, now 38 years old, was born on 13 October 1988 and has been a referee since 2004. He reached the Austrian first league in 2016 and was placed on the FIFA list in 2019, a progression that led to his first international national-team match in 2020, when Slovenia beat San Marino 4-0. Since then, he has built a record that includes 17 international national-team matches.
A referee already familiar with Romanian football
This is not Gishamer’s first assignment involving a Romanian side in UEFA competition. He handled Olimpija Ljubjana versus Sepsi OSK Sf. Gheorghe in July 2022, FCSB versus Anderlecht 0-0 in the Conference League in September 2022, HJK Helsinki versus Farul Constanța 2-0 in August 2024, FCSB versus Olympiacos 0-0 in the Europa League in November 2024, and CFR Cluj versus Hacken 1-0 in August 2025.
That background matters because it means Romania versus Poland is arriving with a referee who has already been tested in matches involving Romanian clubs at different levels and in different European settings. It does not guarantee anything about the tone of this game, of course, but it does suggest UEFA trusts him in high-profile environments.
The wider detail around Gishamer is equally specific. He comes from Austria and is also connected to engineering work, with his company noted in Berchtesgaden, about 45 kilometres from a location in Bavaria with fewer than 8,000 inhabitants. He is one of the more experienced Austrian names in UEFA’s current pool, and this assignment makes him the 27th Austrian referee to take charge of such a fixture.
For Romania and Poland, the practical question is simple: the match begins at 21:45, the venue is Arena Națională in București, and the man in charge is Sebastian Gishamer. Everything else flows from that.
