Preamble (+ UEFA Club finals)

The tournament's mascot was a rabbit bearing exactly that name, depicted here in the Stockholm opening ceremony.
With thanks to Juha Tamminen (site).

Not too much to remark here - the final eight-team UEFA EURO finals followed a very similar script to Italia '90, both in football and refereeing terms. Fifteen different referees handled the games in Sweden, with quartets being flown in à la club competitions (ie. there was no refs camp as we have for EURO nowadays). Though, of note - assistant referees were now selected from the FIFA Linesmen list, as was designed after WC 1990.

Tangentially: I thought it would be quite interesting to check out the officiating in the finals of the three UEFA club competitions in the two seasons between World Cup 1990 and this tournament. Accordingly, find analysis / some clips of the eight games in the comments, and full appointments below this text!

(believe me, it was hard work compiling all of these appointments! :D)

Comments

Mikael WSeptember 12, 2022 at 10:14 AM
As promised, some words on each performance:

Spirin - Extremely difficult assignment for the Moscovite official in the first leg of this final between two Serie A sides and, as I feared, he was quite far out of his depth. The whole game was a real struggle for him with many scenes managed haphazardly, though most crucial was the penalty he awarded Inter, of very questionable merit (a dive). The Soviet official was visibly quite aware of what a huge task he faced and did his best, but I would have rejected this performance, honestly.

Karlsson - Having been supported by UEFA for his handling of the deeply controversial Marseille vs. Milan European Cup semi weeks previous, the Swede had a good game here. His style -- carefully focused, using his height and calming demeanour for authority, very sparing use of cards -- worked out well in an exciting and fair-spirited game. Very good RC decision at the end of the game, both linesmen also got their key calls right too (2-0 goal allowed; equaliser ruled off).

Quiniou - By no means a seminar-style masterclass (very lenient, treating the players like an irritated dictator), in his biggest ever UEFA appmnt, the Frenchman did a sterling job to escape from this game unscathed. Only a true top class referee could have done that! Key call of the whole game: no penalty to Roma at 10', Quiniou detected Völler's dive. Fantastic football spectacle over both legs, any referee would have been in big trouble handling these ties, very intense indeed.

Lanese: Italy's new no.1 referee whistled over 70(!!) fouls in 120mins whilst 'Red Star' had zero shots on target in that period, before getting 5/5 and winning the penalty competition. Too lenient disciplinary by the Italian and nervous players condemned this game (think SUI vs. UKR 2006). Regarding KMIs: Abidi Pelé should have been sent off for undectected VC, while OM also tested new 'professional foul' rules to the limit, but Lanese never missed a clear red card IMO.

Worrall: EURO draw (ENG/SCO) ruled out all British refs, so FA recieved UEFA Cup final gig as compensation. A capricious English crew did a sound job in Turin, referee Joseph Worrall bang on the spot to give the away side a second half penalty for a clear but well-spotted trip. Not 'UEFA top' material, but Worrall was a decent ref for the international scene. Casagrande wanted a pk at the end for tugging, but his appeals were waved away.

D'Elia: In his last ever game, the long-time FIFA referee made quite a pig's ear this final, even if in the end it all turned out okay. Some calls were excruciatingly unwise, but by sheer force of personality, he skated the match to a positive conclusion. If his technical accuracy was high(er), then Pietro D'Elia could have been one of the best referees of the late 20th century!

Petrović: Banal UEFA politics stupidly saw one of Europe's best referees out of the EURO finals, though they can't be blamed for Slobodan M's actions, which among other much more serious things, lascerated Zoran Petrović's international career aged forty. Famously (and rightly!) denying Torino a 1H penalty -- much more dubiously a few minutes later he dealt with an Ajax pk appeal with the same skpeticism -- this was a classy and assured performance by Petrović. Torino lost their heads at the end, but Mr Petrović more than kept his, completing a strong last hurrah on the top stage.

Schmidhuber - Full German trio attending EURO92 controlled the last ever pre-CL European Cup final, and team leader Schmidhuber reffed Sampdoria vs. Barcelona well, applying the same style we saw at WC1990 effectively at Wembley. Interestingly, the game was littered with not-retreating (mgmt) incidents throughout, and a few small confrontations which could have been avoided with more optimal decision-making, but nothing big really. Though: Koeman's cup winning strike in 2ET resulted from a (passed!!) IFK just outside the box, original call for which was pretty harsh.
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UEFA EURO 1992

Preamble (+ UEFA Club finals)

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