He caused controversy at a BVB game! Is the referee overseeing PSG vs. Bayern a bad omen for the Bavarians?

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 faced Schärer twice in the competition before: in 2020/21 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. 

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 quarter-finals under Schärer’s guidance, securing a 2-1 victory in the second leg of the last-16 tie against OSC Lille, a result that left the French side visibly frustrated. 

“When the referee was appointed, I noticed he was a German-Swiss national, which I found peculiar. At half-time, he spoke only German with the Dortmund players,” Lille president Olivier Letang said, indirectly blaming the official for 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.