Is the referee appointed for PSG a bad omen for Bayern?

Sporting Clube de Portugal v FK Bodo/Glimt - UEFA Champions League 2025/26 Round of 16 Second Leg

The referee for the semi-final first leg between FC Bayern Munich and PSG has been announced. He is no stranger to the big stage.

Few topics spark as much debate as referees and their performances. That scrutiny will intensify when FC Bayern Munich meets Paris Saint-Germain in Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg. UEFA has now revealed the match official, and the appointment is unlikely to evoke fond memories for the German record champions. 

Sandro Schärer from Switzerland will referee the match between Vincent Kompany’s side and Bayern at the Parc des Princes, as Bayern seek a first Champions League final berth since 2020. 

Bayern have previously faced Schärer twice in the competition: in the 2020/21 campaign he oversaw their 2-0 win over Lokomotiv Moscow. More recently, however, the Swiss official was in charge for a match that the Bavarians will prefer to forget. 

Portugal v Spain - UEFA Nations League 2025 Final

Schärer riled BVB’s opponents.

Last season’s 1–2 home loss in the quarter-final first leg against Inter Milan, despite an impeccable officiating performance, effectively set the stage for Bayern’s elimination after they could only manage a 2–2 draw in the return fixture at San Siro—scarcely a promising sign. 

In contrast, Borussia Dortmund advanced to the last eight under Schärer’s guidance, securing a 2-1 second-leg win over OSC Lille in the round of 16—a result that left the French side seething. 

Schärer: “I was a handful—really difficult.”

“When I saw that the referee was a German-Swiss national, I thought it was peculiar. At half-time, he spoke only German with the Dortmund players,” Lille president Olivier Letang said, implying that the official contributed to his side’s elimination. 

Yet Schärer knows what it’s like to be on the other side; after all, the 37-year-old was a player himself in his day and was even regarded as a “rebel”, as the Tagesanzeiger describes him. “I was a difficult one, really bad,” he says of himself.