Urs Meier (football referee)

Urs Meier (2018)

Urs Meier (born January 22, 1959 in Würenlos , resident in Dällikon ) is a former Swiss football referee .

From life as a referee

Significant stations

Meier was a referee from 1977. In 1991 he directed his first game in National League A , and since 1994 he has been a FIFA referee. At the 1998 World Cup he whistled the explosive preliminary round match between the USA and Iran and the round of 16 between Denmark and Nigeria . At the Soccer World Cup in 2002 he led the semi-finals between South Korea and Germany . In 2002 he whistled the final of the Champions League . Meier received the award for Swiss “Referee of the Year” six times in a row from 1995 to 2000, and in 2004 he was honored for a seventh time.

«Cursed by Romanian witches»

After a qualifying game for the 2004 European Football Championship between Romania and Denmark , Meier fell out of favor with Romanian fans - the tabloid press wrote of “Romanian witches ”. He had played five minutes in which the Danes scored the decisive goal from offside, even after a Dane had touched the ball with his hand. Urs Meier recognized his blatant mistake and apologized several times, most recently before the semi-final match in the UEFA Cup between Steaua Bucharest and Middlesbrough FC . But it was Meier who gave the Romanian national team a penalty kick in the 89th minute of the 2000 European Championship . The Romanians exploited this and England was eliminated.

England versus Portugal in 2004

In the quarter-finals of the 2004 European Football Championship between England and Portugal , Urs Meier canceled a goal from England's Sol Campbell in the 89th minute because John Terry had fouled the Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo . England lost the game on penalties and were eliminated. Numerous English fans reacted indignantly and blamed Meier for the departure of their team. After British tabloids published his email address, he received death threats and over 16,000 emails of protest. Reporters from The Sun even rolled out a giant English flag in front of his house in Würenlos , according to Meier, a WWII practice to mark bomb targets. Meier then received police protection for a few weeks.

UEFA Champions League and resignation

Meier also had numerous appearances in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup . He led a semi-final of the Champions League five times in a row. On December 11, 2004, he directed his last game ( FC Basel against FC Thun ) and then resigned as a professional referee due to age. By then he had directed a total of 883 games as a referee. From the end of 2007 until his resignation in June 2011, he was head of the Swiss referees. He is a referee observer for UEFA .

Television commentator

Meier has been an expert on football broadcasts for ZDF since 2005 . First, he commented alongside Johannes B. Kerner , Franz Beckenbauer and Jürgen Klopp . He also analyzed the games for ZDF at the 2006 World Cup and, together with Kerner and Klopp, received the German Television Award for the best sports program . At the European Championships in 2008 he again acted as an expert together with Jürgen Klopp. This collaboration ended on June 25, 2008. He was signed up again for the 2010 World Cup , this time even with his own format, in which he analyzed contentious situations. He was also hired by ZDF as an expert at the EM 2012 , the 2014 World Cup , the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup .

Private

Urs Meier is the father of two children from their first marriage, who are now of legal age. Until May 2007 he was in a relationship with the referee Nicole Petignat . Today he lives in Oberrohrdorf with his wife Andrea and their two children . Until it was sold in 2010, he was the owner of a household appliance and kitchen business in Wettingen . In the same year he founded Urs Meier Management AG and offers lectures, training courses and events.

literature

• Urs Meier: You are the decision: act quickly and decisively , Scherz Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3502151463 .

Web links

Commons : Urs Meier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website from Urs Meier

Individual evidence

1. ↑ football.ch: honors of swiss referees and assistants
2. ↑ chattisch.de: "Romanian witches curse Swiss referees"
3. ↑ Robbed… by reffin 'half-wit - The Sun
4. ↑ Urs Meier: Referee under police protection - swissinfo.org
5. ^ Farewell to Urs Meier (video) - Swiss television
6. ↑ Urs Meier stops at the association in: NZZ Online from June 25, 2011
7. ↑ swissinfo.ch: "No games are manipulated at the World Cup" Interview of June 11, 2010
8. ↑ Kramer becomes World Cup expert on ZDF , borussia.de, accessed on June 5, 2018
9. ↑ tz.de : Urs Meier again ZDF expert , accessed on March 27, 2014
10. ↑ Der Sonntag : "The referees are just the jumping jacks" Interview from July 4th 2010
11. ↑ From the portrait of Urs Meier on his own website www.ursmeier.ch ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.