Urs Meier (born 22 January 1959) is a retired

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

football referee. He officiated at the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and 2002 World Cups, taking charge of the semi-final between

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and

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 ...

in 2002. He also refereed the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final that year. He appeared at Euro 2000 and Euro 2004, refereeing the quarter-final between

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

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 ...

in 2004. He retired 6 months later. Meier received FIFA appointments and refereed in the Swiss top division until he reached the mandatory retirement age for each. He now appears as a pundit on the German television channel ZDF during World Cups and European Championships. He also owns a brand of household appliances in Würenlos, Switzerland.

Life

Meier was born on 22 January 1959 in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Career

At the 1998 World Cup, Meier refereed the famous USA-Iran match. Later in an interview, he claimed that he had predicted himself as the referee of that match due to Switzerland's role as protecting power of United States in Iran. He refereed a qualification match for Euro 2004 between

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Denmark equalised in extra time to eliminate Romania. Romanian side argued he should have ended the game more than a minute before. Also, the penalty allowing Denmark to score the first goal was highly disputed, even the Danish TV commentator saying "only certain host teams are awarded such penalties". After several Romanian newspapers published his email address after the game, Meier received 14,000 e-mails, including death threats. He refereed the Euro 2004 quarter-final between

and

at Lisbon, which ended in a 2–2 draw with Portugal proceeding to win on a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. In the 90th minute, Sol Campbell found the net, but Meier disallowed the goal citing a push on the Portuguese keeper. After the match Meier's personal details were published by British tabloid newspapers and Meier received more than 16,000 abusive e-mails, including death threats. Reporters from ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' travelled to Switzerland and placed a giant English flag on a field near his home. As a result, he was placed under

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

protection.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meier, Urs 1959 births Living people People from Zurich Swiss football referees UEFA Champions League referees 1998 FIFA World Cup referees 2002 FIFA World Cup referees UEFA Euro 2000 referees UEFA Euro 2004 referees