The former referee criticizes the decision – that’s why Sieber decided red against Elvedi

After the national team’s 2-0 loss in the League of Nations against Denmark, Swiss football is mostly talking about referee Daniel Siebert.

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The red heads follow the red card. Even on the morning after the 2-0 defeat against Denmark, Swiss football cannot understand why Nico Elvedi was sent off shortly after the start of the second half. “The fact that the referee goes out and watches only half of the action is something I’ve never seen before today. That is a big scandal to me! ” said Nati captain Granit Xhaka, who was also sent off in the final stage with a yellow-red card. after the match against Blick.

What had happened? In the 48th minute, Nati defender Nico Elvedi got into a running duel with Kasper Dolberg. The Danish striker grabbed Elvedi’s arm and caused the Swiss to fall. Elvedi fell on Dolberg’s leg and took his opponent down. Although the shot took place outside the penalty area, the German referee Daniel Siebert gave him a penalty.

German video assistant (VAR) Christian Dingert recommended a video review to Siebert. After this, the 40-year-old not only took back the penalty, but also the warning against Elvedi – only to receive a free kick and a red card against the Swiss for emergency braking.

Not only the Swiss players and fans, but also the main German referee Manuel Gräfe believed that it was a wrong decision: “The first foul comes from the red player,” he writes on “cool”. “The referee should, but the assistant MUST see that he was out,” said the 50-year-old woman. It is understandable that one could overlook keeping Dolberg on the field, Gräfe wrote. But: “Using VAR to decide on a foul by Elvedi and a red card is wrong for me. “

But is the German referee to blame for the wrong decision and was he even one? “Siebert has agreed to come into the locker room,” said Nati coach Murat Yakin after 20 minutes. Then they watched the scene again together and Sieber explained to Yakin that he wasn’t able to see all the images when he was reviewing the video. “He only saw the scene with the red card, but he didn’t cheat before,” Yakin said.

So are video assistants Christian Dingert and Patrick Hanslbauer the culprits? At least there was a lack of transparency there. Siebert decided on a penalty and brought it back after reviewing the video. An official UEFA announcement announced a red card investigation. Only the referees could respond to what happened and it was discussed.

Basically, the VAR can only intervene in four situations: goals, penalties, sending off or a combination of players. The first and last were certainly not true here. A penalty situation may have been determined by the VAR based on the on-field decision. In this case, however, it was not investigated whether there was real cheating, but only where it happened. Maybe that’s why Siebert didn’t see any pictures of Dolberg’s striker cheating.

The question remains as to whether it would be possible to review Elvedi’s dismissal. according to IFAB rule book (Page 73) yes, but either the video assistants interpreted Siebert’s false whistle against Switzerland as a factual decision, or they didn’t think Dolberg’s false striker was very bad for the decision to reverse this.

In any case, the Swiss national team cannot change anything about the red card or the subsequent result. After an unnecessary defeat against Denmark, Murat Yakin’s side are already under pressure on Sunday evening against European champions Spain (8.45pm) without the suspended Elvedi and Xhaka.