Who is the referee for England vs Wales? Where have I seen Urs Schnyder before
The referee for the friendly between England and Wales has been announced.
Tonight Wembley will host a home nations friendly, as Wales come to town. The Welsh, despite a surprise friendly defeat to Canada last month, are in decent form at the moment having pushed Belgium hard in a 4-3 away defeat in June, and are preparing for the return World Cup qualifier in Cardiff on Monday.
And the atmosphere surrounding England has perked up as well. After monotonous - boring but admittedly clean-sheet victories - in his first few games, and a limp defeat at home to Senegal in a summer friendly, it looked as if the Tuchel era was not going to be what was hoped for. Only dispatching Andorra 2-0 at home last month did not restore much confidence, but the next game, a 5-0 win away at Serbia, will see the players go into this international break with their tails up. So we await to see which England will turn up tonight.
Who is the referee for England vs Wales?
Today’s man in the middle is Urs Schnyder from Switzerland. The 39-year-old has officiated several high-profile games before, including Euro 2024 qualifiers between France and the Republic of Ireland at the Parc des Princes two years ago, and Latvia v Croatia in the same qualifiers.
He also took charge of the Group I World Cup qualifier between Italy and Moldova in June this year.
Where have I seen the England vs Wales ref before?
Schnyder will be a familiar face to some English football fans - and may be a good omen. He was the ref for Newcastle’s away game in Belgium last week when they beat Union Saint Gilloise 4-0 away in the Champions League.
He was also the man in black for Liverpool’s Europa League game against Austrian side Lask in 2023 - Liverpool were also 4-0 winners in that match.
Will the England vs Wales ref send anyone off?
It’s unlikely. In big games - internationals and European competitions - he averages less than one red every five games. Stat crunchers will tell us that he blows for an average of 18 fouls a game.