Editing Urs Meier (section)

==Career==
At the [[1998 FIFA World Cup|1998 World Cup]], Meier refereed [[United States v Iran (1998 FIFA World Cup)|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 [[2004 European Football Championship|Euro 2004]] between [[Romania national football team|Romania]] and [[Denmark national football team|Denmark]]. 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 [[2004 UEFA European Football Championship|Euro 2004]] quarter-final between [[England national football team|England]] and [[Portugal national football team|Portugal]] at Lisbon, which ended in a 2–2 draw with Portugal proceeding to win on a [[penalty shoot-out (association football)|penalty shootout]]. In the 90th minute, [[Sol Campbell]] found the net, but Meier disallowed the goal citing a push on the Portuguese keeper.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/euro_2004/3830451.stm | title=Portugal break England hearts | publisher=[[BBC]] | date=2004-06-24 | access-date=2007-11-16}}</ref> 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 (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' travelled to Switzerland and placed a giant English flag on a field near his home. As a result, he was placed under [[police]] protection.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/jun/30/pressandpublishing.football | title=Tabloid campaign forces referee into hiding | work=[[The Guardian]] | date= 2004-06-30 | access-date=2010-06-27 | location=London | first=Edward | last=Holt}}</ref>