UEFA has appointed a Swiss as the referee for the quarter-final first leg between FC Bayern and Inter Milan in the Champions League. The referee has already officiated in three matches involving Germany this season.
The Swiss Sandro Schärer will referee the quarter-final first leg between FC Bayern and Inter Milan in the Allianz Arena this Tuesday evening. The 36-year-old from Buttikon in the canton of Schwyz has been a FIFA referee since 2015. Before embarking on this career path, Schärer worked as a substitute teacher and ski instructor after studying sports and geography.
Schärer once played soccer himself, and was considered a “rebel” on the pitch, as the Tagesanzeiger wrote about him: He was regularly annoyed, often complained “and believed he had to teach the referee how to do his job.” Schärer himself said about himself: “I was a difficult, very bad guy.” But he always felt “I could and should help the referee.” His father finally convinced Schärer to become a referee.
Schärer has refereed four Champions League matches so far, all of them this season, and three of them involving German teams: Bayer Leverkusen vs. AC Milan in the group stage, RB Leipzig vs. Liverpool in the round of 16, and Borussia Dortmund’s 2-1 win at Lille OSC in the round of 32. He also refereed the pre-season UEFA Super Cup between Real Madrid and Atalanta Bergamo and two matches at the 2024 European Championship in Germany.
In the match between FC Bayern and Inter Milan, Schärer will come up against exactly one compatriot: Yann Sommer, a former Bayern goalkeeper and 94-time Swiss international, will be in the Italian goal.
