In an interview with Urs Meier

Mr. Meier, as a referee, you have experienced some tough decisions and their consequences. Which of these incidents have stayed particularly vivid in your memory? There have been several, the three most intense ones were definitely the reactions after the matches Croatia Zagreb - Newcastle United, Denmark - Romania, and Portugal - England. In all these games, politics also got involved and made me a scapegoat, of course, to divert attention from their own problems, mistakes, and shortcomings. This led to me facing the wrath of the entire population. In the case of Romania, more than 5000 people gathered in front of the Swiss embassy to protest against me, and additionally, 7 Romanian witches came together to curse me. After the quarter-final match at EURO 2004 in Lisbon between Portugal and England, I was on the front page of the SUN for four days. In all these cases, I did not feel the support of the associations, meaning the people/organizations that were supposed to protect me went into hiding. These are bitter moments, but they also show you which people are there for you in times of need and which are not. How does it feel to know that you can suddenly turn tens of thousands of people in the stadium and millions in front of the TV against you? In those moments, you just hope that your decision, your decisions were correct and that everything will calm down after the final whistle. In addition to your active refereeing career, you also ran your own company. Were you able to juggle both responsibilities? When you are successful and in the "flow," everything just falls into place. Of course, I also had very good employees who represented me with great skill and dedication. What suffered, however, was my family, meaning I then separated from my first wife. What is important in situations that require a quick decision? That you are ready for the decision, meaning that you can anticipate and look ahead, just like in traffic. You must, of course, know the rules and instructions and bring as much experience as possible, meaning sometimes you also have to listen to your "gut" and trust it. Especially in complex situations, the mind is often unable to make quick and correct decisions.