Referee Visser and Vrancken have a tense history ahead of the Trabzonspor match

Trabzonspor will face Hearts in the UEFA Conference League. Belgian referee Lawrence Visser will officiate the match. The Scottish outlet Edinburgh News wrote that Visser and Hearts manager Wouter Vrancken have met many times in the Belgian Pro League, and that those games saw tension over refereeing decisions.

In 2023, while in charge of Genk, Vrancken was sent off by Visser with a red card in a 3-1 win over Club Brugge. The manager protested a yellow card shown to Daniel Muñoz, and when he asked for an explanation of the incident, he was shown a second yellow card. After the match, Vrancken said that play was allowed to continue when Gerardo Arteaga took an elbow to the face, while Muñoz was booked immediately.

Their history goes back to 2020. Mechelen went 2-0 up against Beerschot and lost the match 3-2. Visser showed Aster Vranckx a red card and also sent off two members of the technical staff. Belgian pundit Patrick Goots argued that Mechelen lost the match not to their opponent but to the referee.

The most recent meeting came in September 2025 between Sint Truiden and Genk. Sint Truiden lost the match 2-1. A goal by Keisuke Goto was disallowed after a VAR alert, and Rein Van Helden was shown a red card. Vrancken said that a foul on goalkeeper Leo Kokubo went unseen and that Konstantinos Karetsas was not booked even though he took his shirt off.