Swiss Cheese

Kuipers

Kuipers was invisible in the match for 55 minutes. He issued a very early yellow card to von Bergen in the 3rd minute, that was perhaps the right way for this match. In the 55th minute, he dismissed Reto Ziegler for a rude foul. AR2 van Roekel was about five metres away and immediately brandished his flag and made some signals in Kuipers' direction. The result was a straight red card, perhaps - considering the fairness of this match so far - the sending-off seemed to be too harsh, but I think that one can give it. 5 minutes later on, he awarded a penalty to Wales for a foul in the box. Hard to say whether there was a contact, I really doubt it. Kuipers did not hesitate a second, he had clear view on this situation, it remains a controversial decision. We have to trust Kuipers, the TV screens do not reveal it 100%. The rest was very solid including the assistant referees' decisions, the other booking was correct, too.

Falsification of competition?

Some Swisse players said that in interviews. The reason? Montenegro made an application to UEFA whether they could postpone the kick-off of MNE-ENG, UEFA agreed and the match started 15 minutes later than the WAL-SUI match. The SUI team therefore had to watch their end 10 minutes after the match in the TV room when Montenegro scored the equalizer in the 91st minute. It does not matter to my mind whether this influenced the group situation...UEFA's agreement is inexplicable IMO.