Ľuboš Micheľ (; born 16 May 1968) is a retired Slovak football referee.

Referee career

At a young age, Micheľ refereed a number of games in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. Micheľ became a

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referee at the age of 25. Micheľ was selected to referee the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

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, between Porto and Celtic, one of the biggest appointments for a UEFA referee. Micheľ officiated at Euro 2004, taking charge of 3 games, including the quarter-final between

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and the

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. He issued 16 yellow cards, but no reds, at an average of 5.33 cards per game, placing him sixth on the cards-per-game table. In the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, during the semi-final second leg match between

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and Chelsea at Anfield in which the home team won by 1–0 and hence qualified for the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, there was debate over whether a " ghost goal" had been scored by Liverpool winger Luis García. A computerised 're-enactment' suggested the ball had not crossed the line, and that Micheľ would have been unable to see it from his angle, while motion expert Mike Spann concluded that Micheľ had made the correct decision.Motion expert says Garcia's shot did cross the line
''

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'' 5 May 2005 Micheľ himself stated that his decision was based on the reaction of the assistant referee because had he not awarded Liverpool the goal, he would have awarded them a penalty kick and sent off Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Čech for a foul on Milan Baroš instead. After studying a series of still images of the incident, motion expert Dr. Mike Spann concluded that Micheľ had made the correct decision by signalling a goal. Micheľ was selected to be the referee of the 2008 UEFA Champions League final, the match between

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

and Chelsea. The match went to a penalty shootout which, after much excitement, was eventually won by Manchester United. Micheľ became only the second referee to give a red card in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

final (the first being Terje Hauge in 2006) when he sent

Didier Drogba Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He is the Top international association football goal scorers by cou ...

off in extra time for a slap at Nemanja Vidić's chin. Michel was selected to be a referee at the

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

, where he refereed the Group A game between

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, the Group C game between

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and the quarter-final match between

and

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. On 23 October 2008, he retired from active referee activity due to problems with his Achilles’ tendon. His last match was the game Metalurh Zaporizhya against Metalist Kharkiv in the Ukrainian Premier League. Micheľ was ranked the world's third best referee in 2005 by the IFFHS, second best in 2006 and third best again in 2007.

2002 FIFA World Cup

When Micheľ took charge of the

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game at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he became the first Slovak to referee a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

Finals match. (Three Slovak referees, Martin Macka (1958), Karol Galba (1962, 1966) and Vojtech Christov (1982, 1986) count to

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

)

2006 FIFA World Cup

Micheľ was selected as one of 21 referees for the 2006 World Cup in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. After his performance in the first two rounds,

chose him as one of twelve referees to officiate the final eight games of the tournament. Micheľ has handed out the second highest number of cards per match (8) of any referee in the tournament. The only person with a higher tally is Valentin Ivanov, who handed out an average of ten. Micheľ matches have been considered tempestuous. In the group stage he took charge of the game between

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and

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; the game ending 2–1 to Portugal. He issued 8 yellow cards, sent a player off for diving, gave two penalties, and rejected a claim for one in the second half. In the Round of 16 he took charge of the

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

match, won by Brazil 3–0. He sent off one Ghanaian player for diving and ordered the Ghana coach, Ratomir Dujković, to leave the field after the coach argued with him about an offside goal. Micheľ refereed the quarterfinals loss of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

to the hosts

, which was tied 1–1 and went into extra time and ended on penalty kicks. He handed out seven yellows during the match. Micheľ gave a red card to Argentina's unused substitute Leandro Damián Cufré for kicking Per Mertesacker during the post-game melee involving the two teams and some members of their coaching staffs.

Post referee career

Micheľ was a manager of a car tyre factory outside of refereeing, and previously a teacher. He speaks English, Russian, German and Polish in addition to his native Slovak. He founded the society ''Talent'' to support young Slovak football players. Micheľ has been a Member of

National Council of the Slovak Republic The National Council of the Slovak Republic (, abbreviated to ''NR SR'') is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameralism, unicameral and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation ...

since 2006. On 27 October 2008, Micheľ signed a contract with Shakhtar Donetsk as the head of the international competitions department. For a brief period of time between 2006 and 2010, Ľuboš Micheľ was serving as a lawmaker in the Slovak parliament, where he was elected in the 2006 elections. Between December 2015 and November 2018, he worked for

PAOK FC PAOK FC (, ), short for "Pan-Thessalonian Sports club, Athletic Club of Constantinople, Constantinopolitans" (), and commonly known as PAOK Thessaloniki, PAOK Salonika or simply PAOK, is a Greek professional Association football, football cl ...

as Sporting Director and president. Since September 2021, Micheľ has worked as president for 1. FC Tatran Prešov. In October 2022, Micheľ ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of

Prešov Prešov () is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region () and Šariš. With a population of approximately 85,000 for the city, and in total more than 100,000 with the urban area, it is the second-largest city i ...

References

External links

Micheľ interview
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Michel, Lubos 1968 births Living people People from Stropkov Sportspeople from the Prešov Region Slovak football referees 2006 FIFA World Cup referees 2002 FIFA World Cup referees Czechoslovak football referees UEFA Champions League referees Olympic football referees PAOK F.C. presidents UEFA Euro 2004 referees UEFA Euro 2008 referees FC Shakhtar Donetsk non-playing staff Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2006-2010