Urs Meier
Urs Meier (born January 22 1959) is a Swiss football referee. Since 1994 he has been an international FIFA referee. He was elected by an expert jury to be the second-best referee in 2002 and third-best in 2004. He officiated at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, refereeing the semi-final between South Korea and Germany in 2002.
England-Romania At Euro 2000 he awarded Romania an 89th minute penalty kick which eliminated England from the competition.
Denmark-Romania During a qualification match for Euro 2004 between Romania and Denmark, he awarded a very controversial penalty kick for Denmark and disregarded the extra time announced by the assistant, making it five minutes instead of two, in which Denmark equalized (2-2), a goal which eliminated Romania. As a result, the Romanian press and fans reacted: 14,000 angry e-mails were sent to him, as several Romanian newspapers published his email address. Also, several petitions, signed by thousands of people were sent to UEFA, but they were disregarded.
Portugal-England In the Euro 2004 quarter-final between England and Portugal, with the score at 1-1, he disallowed a goal by Sol Campbell in the 89th minute due to a perceived foul by John Terry on the Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo Pereira. England subsequently lost the match on penalties and Portugal reached the final but lost to Greece. Some English "fans" reacted angrily. After his personal details were published by British tabloid newspapers, Meier received death threats, more than 16,000 abusive e-mails and even had an English flag placed at his home. As a result, he was placed under police protection.
External links http://www.ursmeier.ch/referee - Urs Meier's page on refereeing (German) http://www.wewererobbed.co.uk/ - page arguing that Urs Meier's refereeing decision in the England-Portugal match was incorrect.
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