Football

Who is Glenn Nyberg, the referee for Man City - Inter in the Champions League today?

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Sep 19, 2024 / 3624 Views

Sweden’s Glenn Nyberg will referee one of the stand-out games in the opening week of the revamped UEFA Champions League, as Manchester City and Inter Milan face off today in a repeat of the tournament’s 2023 final.

City host Inter at the start of the newly introduced ‘league phase’, in which each team will play eight games - four at home, four away - against eight different sides. Find out more about the changes to Europe’s elite club competition.

When City and Inter last met in the Champions League, in the trophy decider 15 months ago, Rodri Hernández’s goal gave Pep Guardiola’s men a 1-0 win in Istanbul, as the Premier League club lifted their first ever continental title.

Who is Man City vs Inter referee Glenn Nyberg?

Nyberg, who made his debut in the top flight of Swedish men’s soccer in 2013, has been a Champions League referee since the 2022/23 campaign. The 35-year-old has overseen seven Games in the comPetition, including City’s 3-2 home win over RB Leipzig in last season’s group stage. He is yet to cross paths with Inter.

In his most recent Champions League appointment, a 2-2 quarter-final first-leg draw between Arsenal and Bayern Munich in April, Nyberg made headlines with a penalty call that attracted the Germans’ ire. In the second half in North London, Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhães picked the ball up in the box, not realising play had already restarted. However, the referee opted against punishing the Brazilian over the misunderstanding.

“[Nyberg] made a huge mistake not giving the handball penalty,” then-Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel fumed post-match. Tuchel added: “What makes us really angry is the explanation on the field. He told our players that it is a ‘kid’s mistake’ and he will not give a penalty like this in a quarter-final. This is a horrible, horrible explanation. He is judging handballs. Kid’s mistake, adult’s mistake.”

So far in his Champions League career, Nyberg has averaged just over two yellow cards per Game, and is yet to send a single player off.

Nyberg in action at Euro 2024.KENZO TRIBOUILLARDAFP

Referee for Olympic “circus”

In the international game, Nyberg was this year on the roster of referees at both the European Championship and the men’s Olympic soccer competition. He was handed three games at Euro 2024 - most notably, France’s last-16 win over Belgium - while his four matches in Paris included the tournament’s controversial opening game between Argentina and Morocco.

When Cristian Medina scored for the Argentines deep into stoppage time, he looked to have rescued a 2-2 draw for the South Americans. A fan invasion then led Nyberg to take the players off the field for two hours - and when the teams re-emerged in an empty stadium, Medina’s equaliser was ruled out for offside after a check by video assistant referee (VAR) Paolo Valeri. Argentina’s head coach, Javier Mascherano branded the chaotic scenes in Saint-Ètienne a “circus”.