Kurt Röthlisberger (born 21 May 1951 in Suhr) is a retired football referee from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He is known for supervising five matches in the FIFA World Cup: three matches in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, and two in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

Career

In the 1994 World Cup, he refereed the round of 16 match between Germany and Belgium, which Germany won 3–2. Röthlisberger later admitted that he missed a penalty when Thomas Helmer tripped

Josip Weber Josip Weber, nicknamed Joske, (born Josip Veber; 16 November 1964 – 8 November 2017) was a Croatian-Belgian professional football forward. He represented Croatia and Belgium at international level. Club career Weber began his senior career in ...

in the penalty area against Germany and due to this mistake he did not referee another game in the tournament. He also refereed the

1992-93 UEFA Champions League Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

final between

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club pl ...

and A.C. Milan. In 2011, former

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

referee and sports commentator

Ahmet Çakar Ahmet Murat Çakar (born 3 August 1962) is a Turkish doctor, sportscaster, actor and a former football referee. According to IFFHS, he is one of the world's best referees of the quarter of a century. Described as "Turkey's most controversial ...

claimed that

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

's 1993-94 UEFA Champions League tie with Galatasaray was fixed. Çakar claimed that Galatasaray bribed referee Röthlisberger to fix the 0-0 draw, which put the Turks through at United’s expense. Röthlisberger sent off Eric Cantona at the end of the match and the United star claimed at the time the official had been bribed. At the time, Cantona told L’Equipe: “I am certain referees have been bought in the European Cup and I ask myself whether Mr Rothlisberger had not also been bought.” He was later banned from refereeing for life after allegations of match fixing in the 1996-97 UEFA Champions League. The game in question was between Grasshoppers Club Zürich and AJ Auxerre, with

Vadim Zhuk Vadim Dzmitryevich Zhuk ( be, Вадзім Жук; russian: Вадим Жук; born 20 May 1952) is a former Soviet association football referee from Belarus. Zhuk refereed the final match of 1991 Women's World Cup and the 1996 UEFA Cup Final bet ...

of Belarus the referee. UEFA said Röthlisberger contacted the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

team and asked if it would be interested in having the referee favor the Grasshoppers.

References

External links

Profile
1951 births Living people Swiss football referees UEFA Champions League referees FIFA World Cup referees 1990 FIFA World Cup referees 1994 FIFA World Cup referees UEFA Euro 1992 referees {{Sports-official-bio-stub