Desirée Grundbacher referees at a European Championship for the first time

Desirée Grundbacher will be allowed to referee matches at the European Championships in Switzerland

Keystone

Switzerland will not only be represented by the footballers on the pitch at this summer's European Women's Championship (July 2 - 27), but also by the referees.

Keystone-SDA

31.03.2025, 16:39•31.03.2025, 16:40

As UEFA announced on Monday, Désirée Grundbacher will be part of the refereeing team. Susanne Küng and Linda Schmid are among the assistants. And Fedayi San has been nominated by the European Football Association as a video assistant.

This is the fourth time in a row and the seventh time in total that Swiss women have been part of the squad for a European Championship final. Before Grundbacher, Nicole Petignat (three times) and Esther Staubli (twice) had the honor of officiating group or knockout matches at continental championships. In the past, Elke Lüthi, Belinda Brem and Küng have been called upon as assistants.

Grundbacher, who joined the elite category of UEFA referees at the beginning of the year, has already refereed matches in European Championship qualifying, the Women's Champions League and the Women's Nations League. For the 41-year-old from Bern, this will be her debut at the elite level, as it will be for her Zurich assistant Linda Schmid. Küng, meanwhile, already has plenty of tournament experience at the highest level: The 37-year-old from Aargau was Esther Staubli's assistant at the 2019 and 2023 World Championships, the 2022 European Championships and the 2020 Olympic tournament.

This is Fedayi San's second major tournament as VAR after the 2024 European Men's Championships.