Flood of red cards in Super League: are our referees faster than Lucky Luke?

A random deviation? Or more? Have our referees adopted the Lucky Luke mentality? The legendary comic book hero who prides himself on being able to shoot faster than his shadow. Do our referees move faster than their shadows?

Huggel supports the Lucky Luke theory

Ex-national player and SRF expert Beni Huggel agrees with this argument: “The referees are currently drawing more cards than ever before!” That’s why his advice to all Super League professionals: “To all midfielders/defenders who play hard: you have to change your playing style in Switzerland! Fewer tackles where something like this could happen.”

Head referee Dani Wermelinger obviously sees it differently. «Has anything changed in the regulations before the last round? Were there new rules of interpretation? Have our people made mistakes? Three times no! And as long as that is the case – like last weekend – all the signals were correct, even if we had to use the help of the VAR airbag twice, then everything is fine for me. In this case, this accumulation of deportations is probably a coincidence.”

There has been seven rounds of red fever

Real? Let’s dig a little deeper into the numerical jungle. In the last three rounds in a row, there has been at least one game with two sacks. And for seven rounds there have been at least two red cards per round. These are alarming values! They speak to a statistical outlier. Seen in isolation for the final round, that may be true. But looking at the past seven rounds, this trend appears to be here to stay.

Therefore, a causal link between this red tide and the rules/VAR cannot be denied. Servette trainer René Weiler also thinks so. «I don’t want to defend my player Enzo Crivelli, don’t get me wrong. This expansion is absolutely fine. But without VAR it wouldn’t have existed. Without VAR there would have been a foul. Without a map.” And that of course has an impact on the statistics. “This also applies to the rule interpretation for the open sole and for the stroke above the ankle. A referee must be able to judge whether it was not mainly bad luck that someone was hit in the shin. Especially if it happens without force. In this case, the referees do not have this discretion. That is not sustainable.” Moreover, Weiler concludes, VAR may only intervene in very clear cases.

Kubi has serious criticism of the open sole card

Blick columnist Kubilay Türkyilmaz does not agree with the marching orders for open soles. The second best goalscorer in national history says: “It is a catastrophe when players are sent off when they are not at fault. How this happened to Lukas Görtler from St. Gallen in the match against Lugano. What’s his fault? He kicked the ball away… No, that’s not how it works at all. But I heard that this nonsensical interpretation is being abolished in Switzerland for the new season. That’s a done deal. Grazie mille!”

So the matter is clear? Are VAR and open soles to blame? Not at all! If you look at all the seasons since the introduction of the Super League, the current one only ranks seventh with an average of 0.26 red cards per match. The average was higher in six seasons. And if you think that these are mainly the seasons since the introduction of VAR, then you are on the wrong track. Only one of these six seasons comes from the modern era, i.e. from the VAR era: 2022/23 with 0.32 dismissals per game.

Is the line to blame?

So there remains one drop in the explanation: namely that the reintroduction of the line would fray the nerves. If you take the last five rounds, i.e. all the rounds played in the calendar year 2024, there were a whopping 14 red rounds, and how was that in comparable periods of the last two seasons WITH a line? Also so wild? Because only 22 rounds were played until the turning point instead of 33 as is the case now, we use rounds 14 to 18 for comparison, when it was already crunch time. And they are shocked to discover that five evictions took place in 2000/2001. One season later six. So it’s not that wild!

And the same rounds without a line? There were eight each in both the last and previous seasons. The ‘dash’ argument is becoming increasingly weak.

You can twist and turn it any way you want: the referees seem to have tightened the screw. As Beni Huggel thinks. Lucky Luke light. Means: It tolerates nothing, dear players. Certainly not in line battles. Or precisely because of that.