Referee Sandro Scharer during the Uefa Champions League quarter final first leg between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in GermanyReferee Sandro Scharer during the Uefa Champions League quarter final first leg between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in Germany
Referee Sandro Scharer during the Uefa Champions League quarter final first leg between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in Germany | Getty Images
The referee has been announced for tonight’s Nations League final.
Swiss Sandro Schärer will take charge of the Iberian peninsula clash between Portugal and Spain, which is being held in the Munich Football Arena in Germany at 8pm British time today.
Who is Sandro Schärer?
Schärer, 36, studied sports and geography at the University of Basel, and was a teacher and ski instructor before training as a referee in 2005.
He then trained as a referee in 2005 and began overseeing games in the Swiss Challenge League six years later at the age of 24.
The 36-year-old has been an international referee since 2015 and has been appointed at 11 UEFA club competition matches this season. In August 2024, he refereed the UEFA Super Cup between Real Madrid and Atalanta.
Have I seen Nations League final referee Sandro Schärer before?
Yes, quite possibly. This season, among the 11 Uefa games he has officiated was Manchester United’s unforgettable last-minute 5-4 Europa League victory against Lyon at Old Trafford which put them through to the Europa League semi-finals.
He was the ref when Chelsea beat Djurgardem 4-1 in the first leg of the Conference League semifinal on May 1. He also oversaw Rangers and Tottenham play out a 1-1 draw in December, and was in the middle when Liverpool beat Leipzig 1-0 away in the Champions League in October, as well as Brighton’s 1-0 away win against AEK Athens in October.
On top of that, he was at the Euros last summer, taking charge of Slovenia and Denmark’s 1-1 draw, and - in what one team tonight will hope is not a bad omen - Georgia’s famous 2-0 victory over Portugal.
Is Sandro Schärer likely to send anyone off?
Swiss referee Sandro Scharer shows a red card to Lyon's French midfielder Corentin Tolisso during the UEFA Europa league quarter-final second leg between Manchester United and Lyon at Old TraffordSwiss referee Sandro Scharer shows a red card to Lyon's French midfielder Corentin Tolisso during the UEFA Europa league quarter-final second leg between Manchester United and Lyon at Old Trafford
Swiss referee Sandro Scharer shows a red card to Lyon's French midfielder Corentin Tolisso during the UEFA Europa league quarter-final second leg between Manchester United and Lyon at Old Trafford | AFP via Getty Images
Not on his track record, he is not. The website WhoScored.com crunches up refereeing numbers and in 15 European and international games, he has shown just two red cards and 53 yellows, averaging out at 0.13 reds per game and 3.53 yellows. One of the reds, however, was to Lyon player Corentin Tolisso in the epic game at Old Trafford.
The assistants are Stéphane de Almeida and Jonas Erni, both from Switzerland, the fourth official is the Dutch Serdar Gozubuyuk, and the video assistant referee is Fedayi San from Switzerland.
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