Who is Oshane Nation, the referee for Columbus Crew - Monterrey today?

Nation, 33, will be refereeing his first tournament semi-final match in Columbus and Monterrey’s 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup tie today.

Jamaica’s Oshane Nation will referee Columbus Crew and Monterrey’s CONCACAF Champions League semi-final first leg today.

Columbus and Monterrey clash in the last four after knocking out Pumas and Inter Miami, respectively, in the quarter-finals. While the Mexicans are chasing a sixth CONCACAF crown, the Crew are after their first ever title in either the Champions Cup or its predecessor, the CONCACAF Champions League.

The winners of Columbus vs Monterrey will face Club América or Pachuca in the Champions Cup final in June. In the first leg of their semi-final tie, the Liga MX pair drew 1-1 in Mexico City on Tuesday.

Watch a live stream of Columbus vs Monterrey on fuboTV.

Now in his fifth season as a match referee in the Champions Cup/Champions League, Nation will be making his debut at the semi-final stage. The 33-year-old has previously crossed paths with Columbus and Monterrey once each in CONCACAF’s elite men’s club competition.

He took charge of Rayados’ 3-0 first-leg win over Dominicans Atlético Pantoja in the last 16 in 2021 - a season in which the Mexicans won their most recent CONCACAF title. Meanwhile, Nation’s sole Champions Cup game involving Columbus came earlier this season, when he oversaw the Americans’ 1-1 draw with Houston Dynamo in the second leg of the last 16.

This may be Nation’s first experience of the Champions Cup last four, but he has run the rule over semi-finals and finals in other CONCACAF competitions.

In the 2021 final of the CONCACAF League - a now-defunct second-tier club competition - he was the whistler for the first leg of Guatemalans Comunicaciones’ 6-3