In-Focus: Final

Match 15: Denmark vs. Germany, Bruno Galler (SUI)
(Click here to open the highlights link) 

Denmark completed the footballing miracle - two weeks before EURO 1992 began, the Danes weren't even amongst the eight competing nations, yet they carried off with the trophy at the end. Yugoslavia's late stand-in did much more than make up the numbers, coming through victorious having faced the competition's four best teams in their last four matches. 

Germany, Matthäus-less for the whole tournament and without Völler after he broke his arm in the first game, never really got going in the final; though the match probably turned on a series of excellent goal chances they missed mid-way through the second half. Kim Vilfort added to John Jensen's first half strike twelve minutes from the end to secure their latest and decisive upset victory.

Denmark were European Champions! A tournament which coincided with the caesura of quite a few things -- one of which Richard Möller Nielsen's side did not use frugally (of 22 backpasses in the final, 16 were their's) -- and for our refereeing focus, owing to the age limit reduction, constituted the twilights of many careers. One of them was final ref Bruno Galler - taking charge of his last ever match. 

A report on how the long-time top official from Switzerland fared in his biggest ever assignment.

Appointment

UEFA changed their assigning strategy from the previous three editions in the last of the eight-team continental showpieces. Whereas in 1980, 1984 and 1988 the only undesignated matches were the finals themselves -- with performances in the group stage being an important consideration in who got the sought-after gig -- for Sweden, it was pre-determined that the fifteen matches of EURO 1992 would be handled by fifteen different referees. It would be interesting to know why the committee opted for this strategy, perhaps the end-of-the-line-ness aforementioned played a part in their reasoning, and they want to give as many officials as possible the chance to have a farewell occasion on the top stage.  

Much praise can go to UEFA's internal organisation here - compared to the UEFA club finals I watched, the performances in the EURO were of a technically much higher standard, despite there being a de jure lack of 'performance principle' in the tournament (ie. whatever your performance was, you'd be on the plane back home afterwards!). We know that they were very firm in demanding the execution of their guidelines, and though this tournament was treated like 'regular' European Cups duty (no 'refs camp', crews flew in, did their matches, and then flew home), one had the feeling that refs were all singing from the same hymnsheet, even if there were the natural descrepancies in quality, etc. 

Accordingly, this meant that three ref squads (ref, linesmen and reserve referee) were going to be appointed straight to the semifinals and final matches. Unlike the twelve group stage appointments which were all sorted out before a ball kicked, UEFA waited until the group games were all played out before defining the headings for the three knockout matches. 

The three pre-selected quartets for the deciding matches were:

1) Swiss team
Referee: Bruno Galler
Linesmen: Zivanko Popovic and Paul Wyttenbach
Fourth Official: Kurt Röthlisberger

2) Italian team
Referee: Tullio Lanese 
Linesmen: Domenico Ramicone and Maurizio Padovan
Fourth Official: Pierluigi Pairetto

3) Spanish team 

Referee: Emilio Soriano Aladrén
Linesmen: Francisco Pacheco García and José Luis Iglesias Casas
Fourth Official: Antonio Martín Navarrete

Everything had been planned intricately by UEFA. The appointments for the final two matches of the group stage were as follows: 

The idea was that the Italian and Swiss teams could stay in Sweden for their knockout assignment, saving them flying to-and-fro across Europe (indeed, Lanese actually picked up a small cold in his stay in Gothenberg and was in bed recouperating for one day between appointments(!), but fully recovered to officiate his game without problems). My guess is that UEFA would have made all fifteen appointments, but wanted to give themselves 'insurance' if the Italian / Swiss linesmen made a crucial mistake like Ohmeyer did, to make a change in some way. Alas, indeed all four linesmen were given passing grades for their performances respectively.

The wide expectation from this arrangement was that the semifinals were going to be handled by Lanese and Galler, with the final saved for Soriano Aladrén. However, nothing was agreed formally, and when the UEFA Referees Committee met on the morning of Friday 19th June to determine the assignments, they were left with an open choice when pairing the three referees with the semifinal and final matches. As these things often get, especially considering there was zero performance material from the tournament in which to compare the triumverate of refs, it became a very political matter. The committee's chairman was an Italian, the about-to-retire veteran Giulio Campanati, and accordingly he strongly made the case that Tullio Lanese should be appointed for the final. However, the other members presented the problem that their quartet had already controlled the probable final match-up, Netherlands vs. Germany, in the group stage. This was a protest that Campanati accepted. How much this was 'used' to prevent what would have been an exaggerated appointment (in my opinion) for Lanese, rather than being a real problem, is open to question. But in any case, it was a semifinal 'only' for the Italians.

This left Soriano Aladrén and Galler in the race, both very experienced international officials, who ironically both were present at an international tournament together ten years ago - World Cup 1982 in Spain. Soriano was part of four group matches (never as main ref) in the 'support squad' of local officials, whereas Galler reffed one game himself, and was involved in three of the most profound matches of the competition: second round matches Italy vs. Argentina (linesman), Italy vs. Brazil (reserve), and the famous West Germany vs. France semifinal where he was linesman to Charles Corver. FIFA gave Galler the cold shoulder after that tournament, but UEFA often appointed him to the late stages of the European Cups, and he handled a match at EURO 1988. As Soriano did, before the Spaniard went to Italia '90, rejected after only two matches, involved in seperate incidents where incorrect penalties were awarded. Both were at the end of their careers by 1992 - Galler's EURO appearance was going to be his final duty as a referee ever, while Soriano had only one more season left in the Primera at home, and his place on the international list was going to be struck out at the end of the year anyway due to age restrictions. 

Ultimately, the committee determined that the semifinals would be handled by Tullio Lanese (Sweden vs. Germany) and Emilio Soriano Aladrén (Netherlands vs. Denmark), with Bruno Galler in charge of the final. If he was under the illusion -- reasonably or otherwise -- that the final was going to be his, it would easily explain Soriano's extremely unmotivated and ultimately unacceptable performance in the second semifinal - the least prestigious of the three possible assignments, I would say. Gerhard Aigner, UEFA's General Secretary, stated the committee had appointed a referee from "a neutral country by definition" (Switzerland), and Galler had been rewarded for an excellent season in the club competitions, which brought him key assignments in the advanced stages of both the Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup. The corridor games had come out in favour of the Swiss official. The EURO final was his. Linesmen, as aforementioned, were Zivanko Popovic and Paul Wyttenbach - the former from the same northern German-speaking region of Switzerland as both Galler, and the reserve referee, experienced Kurt Röthlisberger. 

The appointment to the final of UEFA EURO 1992 in full:

Fri 26 June 1992, 20:15 (UTC+2) – Ullevi, Gothenburg

15 – Denmark vs. Germany

Referee: Bruno Galler (Switzerland)

Linesman 1: Zivanko Popovic (Switzerland)

Linesman 2: Paul Wyttenbach (Switzerland)

Reserve: Kurt Röthlisberger (Switzerland)

Match

Big Decisions

The biggest moments of contention were all regarding the nature of Denmark's two goals, and whether play should have been whistled down before Jensen and Vilfort respectively took their long shots from outside the penalty area. Videos of both scenes are below:

Denmark 1-0 Germany (19', John Jensen)

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Denmark 2-0 Germany (78', Kim Vilfort)

-- ends --

Analysis:

Germany claim that neither goal should have stood - they are half correct. 

2-0 > While it was widely accepted amongst media at the time that the officials had missed Vilfort's handled control before he scored the second goal, and extra angle included in UEFA's official documentary for the tournament disabuses them. You can see quite clearly (or at least I can; the footage is better having not been reuploaded) that the Denmark player actually manages to control the ball with his face, and any contrary impression is actually little more than an optical illusion. 

Fully correct decision to 'validate' the goal. A Baharmast case, one might say!
Here is the footage from the film:

1-0 > If extra video evidence which wasn't shown on the main broadcast feed proves (neccessary!) exoneration for the officials in the second goal, then it isn't so helpful for their case regarding the first score of the game. German television were very enthusiastic to utilise their own replays and camera angles where possible in the early 1990s (indeed their viewers missed Rijkaard's spit live -- unlike to those around the world -- for this reason). In the case of John Jensen's opening goal, they provide us with a key angle which shows us the optical illusion that Bruno Galler had, when he adjudged Kim Vilfort's tackle on Andreas Breheme was a fair one, before Jensen crashed in his shot into the net seconds later. 

Galler, whose positional play combined with his excellent fitness was often noteworthy, finds himself in a bad spot here. He takes himself too wide to the right, too close to his linesman, and he is forced to judge on the Vilfort-Brehme scene from a sub-optimal place. The Swiss referee is quite unlucky here though. First, the way that the ball moves, is exactly how it would have done if it was played fairly by Vilfort - this is achieved by him kicking through Brehme, with the German being 'nudged' to push the ball away. 

This scene is quite amusing as a stand-alone, because the mistake of the official who gets it wrong (Galler), is actually not as bad as the 'error' of the official who actually gets his call right (linesman Zivanko Popovic's no-flag). Popovic was a full five/ten yards off the second-last defender to make the relevant offside judgement here. He is too distracted by a previous fair tackle in front of him, making a very see clear 'team member work' gesture made with his left hand. During the Vilfort-Brehme tackle, he is just ball-watching, in addition to his very bad position, visible from the still below.

Irritatingly, because of when the director chooses to switch to certain camera angles, we cannot say for certain that the attacker (Povlsen) who recieved the ball was offside when the 'pass' took place. But given that he was running upfield here, I cannot see any way that he realistically wasn't off:

Of course, by going with "play on" from the tackle, Popovic must be working on the premise that Vilfort has at least played some of the ball (remarkably, he actually never touches the ball at all, only kicking Brehme!). I don't want to be excessively critical of him here, this was the first year of the dedicated international linesman's list - but this was quite a poor lapse for a EURO final. Unexpected reverse crossovers are simply the nightmare situation to assess for assistant refs though: not one player appealed for offside here, not one player appealed for offside in the third place playoff in 1990, not one player appealed for offside live in Rosetti/Ayroldi's famous WC2010 game.

And even after replays(!!), the commentators in all of these situations never once perceived an offside, only the famous lines in Johannesberg aroused everyone's attention. It should also be underlined that while Popovic could have 'bailed out' his team mate by flagging here, he was absolutely 100% correct on an 'objective level' to allow the goal(!), never any touch by the attacker. And we can't really blame Popovic for missing the foul either, this was Galler's call to make, given that the contact was on the referee's side.

An interesting incident with many different aspects for sure!

Precis > Finally, besides looking at the merits of either decision here, I want to question how harshly we should judge either of these play on calls by the officials. Even if you charge them with mistakes here (and in one scene we should), remember that these would have resulted in freekicks outside the penalty area, and only prevented Denmark from taking long-shots outside the penalty area. These are both by far, far down the spectrum from calls like Coulibaly's in United States vs. Slovenia, and still quite far way from eg. László Vágner's in Cameroon vs. Chile in 1998 as well. Not penalising Vilfort before the 1-0 occurred is a relevant mistake (indeed Breheme said that Vilfort even later in the match apologised to him for the foul; here there is no reason why we shouldn't take the German defender at his word), but we should temper how critically it is seen in the context of the whole performance. To be fair, outside of Germany, I think it was dealt with 'proportionately' by the media - even if they accused the Swiss team in the wrong situation!

Managing the Game

The last of the forty-one Spain '82 main referees still active, Bruno Galler had amassed years of international experience at the top level - and it really showed in the match. The Swiss ref presented quite excellent management and leadership skills, one always having the impression that this final was in very safe hands indeed under his guidance. It reminded me very much of watching Björn Kuipers in the recent EURO final, who handled the game superbly. In this regard, we watched a real masterclass in the Sweden 1992 finale. That must though be set against the more questionable aspect of this performance - disciplinary control. Galler was pretty reactive in this regard, never really having a clear/predictable line. Especially the opening card was not really a satisfying choice, considering what had come before, and two missed bookings at the start and end of the second half respectively were on the frustrating-side.

As a result of a haphazard approach to disciplinary measures, control of the players actions was more limited than it might have been - this should be clear from a few highlights scenes (see below). That being said, I'd be quite firm that the positives of this showing by far outweighed the negatives (also including the 1-0). Indeed, quite ironically given this was a tournament with de facto zero performance principle for the refs, unlike the seven World Cups I've had the pleasure of rewatching in recent times, the best (performing) referee in the tournament was the man who ultimately ended up in charge of the final match! 

Some other small pointers from the game:

> There were two Germany appeals -- 01:10, 18:00 in the highlights -- the first is hard to assess, perhaps some holding existed but hard to tell without replays, the second was absolutely right to play on, theatre by Klinsmann and nothing more. The referee's irked mimic on the pitch in response was quite justified. 

> More specifically on the six cards given: 32' was a neccessary call to keep control but worse had gone before, 35' was very good call, 39' seemed a trifle reluctant for clear reckless, 55' was credible/good, 83' was well-managed against frustration and 89' could easily have been avoided, but was okay in the end.

> Despite being at age forty-five, as it was at the start of his career (certainly the image of him galloping around the pitch in '82 stays with me!), Galler's fitness was excellent. Brilliant mover around the FoP.

> Though, his positioning was not always optimal. He contravened the 'diagnonal patrol path' of always trying to keep your linesmen in view, on a couple of occasions being late to detect their offside flags as a consequence. He was sometimes caught amidst play in the midfield as well.

> Two furious reactions against Denmark DtR wasn't terribly aesthetic, but it certainly made out what the referee's expectations were. It constituted good management in my view - it basically arrested the excesses of the Dane's delaying tactics. Of course besides the backpasses, which would then change for 92/93 season.

> Finally, a couple of scenes which made me smile: 
- 02:23, where in gesturing that he had awarded a freekick for shirt tugging, referee Galler actually untucked his own shirt! He sorted it out quickly as play restarted. 
- 20:58, in cautioning Thomas Doll, he very quickly changes from players friend-type ref, to a distant leader who had absolutely no interest in connecting with the players on the pitch!
:D

Linesmen

Overall, I found the performances of linesmen Zivanko Popovic and Paul Wyttenbach convincing, one doubtful situation for them each aside (1-0 aforementioned, whereas for Wyttenbach it was a wrong offside flag where he managed to miss a defender closer to him; in terms of yards only, this was absolutely the worst mistake of the whole EURO regarding offside! 15:25). Both were very much in the game, and gave able assistance to their team leader throughout. Expected level grades for both. 

I am sad to report that Zivanko Popovic unfortunately passed away in June of last year, aged seventy-one. Popovic was at the side of both Bruno Galler and Kurt Röthlisberger for many important assignments in the mid-1990s, holding both a EURO and Champions League final in his palmares. I also learned that the second linesmen in the French crew, Marc Huguenin, had also passed last year (info about the linesmen in 1992 is quite limited so if anyone knows of any other sad news on this front please let me know).

My sympathies with their family and friends - Rest in Peace.

Balance

Denmark stunned the football world by winning UEFA EURO 1992 after having originally not even qualified for the tournament. Defeating France, the Netherlands and the newly unified Germany consecutively was no mean feat at all. On each occasion, they were deserved victors too in my opinion. Richard Möller Nielsen's side were victorious in a changing time for European football, the break-up of the Soviet Union and the team they replaced in Sweden, Yugoslavia, helped push towards the new sixteen-team EURO in 1996, changing vastly the landscape of UEFA's showpiece tournament. 

It was a changing time for football more generally -- well noted was Denmark's use of 'the backpass rule' -- and this could also be felt in the refereeing. Many officials were at the end of their careers, and perhaps this contributed to the minor internal drama which in the end saw Bruno Galler win the committee's backing to handle the final match. In the event, Galler proved he was up to the the job, with a display of refereeing which was in many ways, quite masterful. In other aspects though, we can be less positive, and the missed foul before the opening goal was an important mistake in evaluating this performance. 

In the end, UEFA made the right choice by appointing Bruno Galler in my opinion. The impression of great 'security' which the Swiss gave was very impressive, his management skills were certainly at the top, and he can be satisfied with the way he drew to a close both the tournament and his whole refereeing career. The performance of the Swiss crew -- not without fault, but of definite overall benefit to the game -- can also be a microcosm for the tournament as a whole, as a closing remark on UEFA EURO 1992.

Bruno Galler - 6 Zivanko Popovic - 7 Paul Wyttenbach - 7 Kurt Röthlisberger Swiss	Denmark 2-0 Germany Final Fri 26 July, 815pm at Ullevi (Gothenberg)
Piechnik (32') - SPA (Blocking)	Effenberg (35') - Challenge Hässler (39') - Tackle Reuter (55') - SPA (Challenge) Doll (83') - Challenge Klinsmann (89') - Tackle
UEFA EURO 1992 winners: Denmark

Hope my UEFA EURO 1992 blog was interesting! A smaller scale than the previous World Cup stuff, but still very rewarding nonetheless, at least from my perspective. This will be the last project before Qatar WC 2022, so will hopefully start a new tournament retrospective (haven't decided what yet) in early 2023 :)

Refereeing Highlights