blue Sport refereeing expert Urs Meier has clear words for the referees' performance in the Swiss Nations League matches.
Was Switzerland at a disadvantage in the Nations League matches?
"There were one or two games in which Switzerland was actually disadvantaged. The red card against Elvedi in the Denmark game in particular was of course a bad decision. Then there were also the balls that were out, but you didn't see them properly or perhaps perceived them differently, which weren't sold well by the referees. There were some decisions in the games that really went against Switzerland."
"When you're at the bottom of the table, it's of course doubly bitter. If you win a game and a wrong decision is made against you, then you can cope with it. But if you lose the game, you come under more pressure again, perhaps you have to act differently in the next game, and your self-confidence also drops a little. It's a vicious circle that you get caught up in. It has to do with the decisions."
Why is there no goal-line technology for such important games?
"It's about a lot of money, you want a premium product and you don't have that, even though it might be available in the stadium - I don't understand that. These are exactly the black spots that the referee already had in the past. I've always said we can't monitor one point. That's often in situations where the ball is in the air somewhere behind the line. The assistant is often not on the baseline, i.e. down on the goal line. As referees, we are also far away, we can't do that either. That's why we have the goal-line technology that was introduced at the 2014 World Cup."
"It's incomprehensible to me that we don't have it at this level. Especially in the last game against Denmark, where the ball was given as out, it was a fatal mistake by the assistant referee. I don't have much understanding for that at this level. But it has everything to do with the VAR. We rely far too much on technology. The pilot must be able to fly even if the technology fails. We have to be able to drive even if the technology fails. Then we are challenged. And it's precisely in these situations that referees and assistants need to be trained more."
