(5) Netherlands-Scotland
Highlights
Report
UEFA did not reject Leif Sundell - though they ought to have. Sundell generally refereed the goalless Netherland-Scotland tie fairly steadily, but with the game less than ten minutes old, he committed a clear match error which should have condemned the performance and ended his tournament: John Collins committed a handball on his own line with what one could coin 'Maradona-deliberateness', pushing the ball away after a header was flying towards goal; play was allowed to continue.
The referees committee ruled that Sundell erred in not awarding a Dutch spot-kick (though, as far as I know, there was no comment on whether Collins should have been dismissed), but he was spared a negative assessment. Why? UEFA stated that the Swedish referee was only following the instructional trend in his country to position himself behind the goalline, rather than the zone which we would traditionally expect to see refs nowadays. Had Sundell followed the correct positioning, UEFA said, he would have detected and punished the handball, so the incident was catagorised as an 'area for improvement' and not a failable mistake. 
With such a forgiving assessment to Sundell, UEFA showed generosity perhaps to the point of absurdity. A curious mind led me to check the Poland-Israel qualifier in 1995 (referee: Anders Frisk). From this set piece (see image), you can see in evidence an 'old school' approach to positioning from a corner-like positioning - but for corners, Frisk was stood in the place expected in modern football.
Guus Hiddink, manager of the Netherlands, at the time stated (words to the effect of) "at international level, it isn't unreasonable to expect a referee to be prepared for a corner kick". For students of refereeing in past major tournaments -- and I'd be fairly sure this was on the radar of insiders at the time too -- the incident has remarkable overtures to Fredriksson/Maradona/1990 (same country referees!). A cynical reading of the situations presents one major difference though: in 1990, Sepp Blatter immediately determined that for Fredriksson his mistake would be 'game over'. Politically, as the number one Swedish ref at this tournament, Sundell surely found himself in a more benign spot at Euro 1996.
UEFA also pointed towards the strong assessment that the committee member(s) in attendance at the game gave the Swede's overall performance as a reason for justifying that Sundell could continue in the tournament. I would say he did indeed do a good job, but definitely not outstanding enough to override the early mistake (regardless, a drawn final score makes a 'clear match error' inevitable). One view would be "a great referee who let the game flow, but cracked down when needed and followed the instructions", but in my view some nuance was missing: the game was only of normal difficulty, and there were just a few too many surprising and unexpected decisions to make the overall impression fully convincing.
My mark would be '7,9(3)' for Leif Sundell's performance (both linesmen were good).
Matchsheet
| Leif Sundell - 5 Kenneth Petersson - 7 Mikael Hansson - 7 Karl-Erik Nilsson (assessor: casarin) | Netherlands 0-0 Scotland Mon 10June 430pm, Birmingham Group Stage |
Ned  Witschge (26') - SPA (Holding) Taument (28') - Challenge | Sco Boyd (4') - Challenge Gallacher (31') - SPA (Holding) |
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