Urs Meier: Caught in the crossfire – decisions under pressure.
Urs Meier, born 1959 in Zurich, married, father of 2 adult children and a little latecomer named Blu, was one of the world’s best referees for many years. When he reached the age limit of 45, he ended his career as a FIFA referee in 2004 and has since been committed to the systematic professionalisation of internationally active referees.
Urs Meier Lecture Topics
- You are the decision
- Between the fronts – decisions under pressure
Urs Meier – Former football expert at German TV ZDF
Urs Meier has been a football expert at ZDF from 2005 until 2021 and comments on international matches, European and World Championships. Since the 2018/2019 season, he has also been commenting on all Champions League matches together with Marcel Reif on the Swiss private broadcaster Teleclub. Urs Meier is also a referee expert for the weekly magazine FOCUS, where he writes columns and comments on current events and decisions concerning referees. Urs Meier, Jürgen Klopp and Johannes B. Kerner were awarded the German Television Prize 2006 for their appearances in the ZDF programmes during the 2006 World Cup.
Urs Meier: “I have learned to make decisions, to deal with defeats and wrong decisions. To work under pressure: When 60,000 spectators are against you, players are against you and then you have to make decisions within fractions of a second, that’s pressure.”
Urs Meier is a popular speaker at corporate events, conferences and congresses. He gives his listeners interesting insights into the world of the impartial. On the basis anecdotes and exciting play scenes it shows, which parallels there are between football and economics: The referee is the game director, leads the players as a collegial boss and has to make a lot of decisions under pressure. Fair play is the motto in both good and bad times.
Urs Meier presents current management issues from a different perspective in an entertaining and relaxed manner.
In doing so, he can draw on his own management experience, because for many years he ran his own very successful medium-sized company in the field of household appliances and kitchen construction. He sold the business in 2010.
Urs Meier: My life on the ball.
Urs Meier began his refereeing career in 1977, when he set himself the goal of refereeing the 1998 World Cup. In 1994, he took an important step in this direction when he was accepted into the circle of FIFA referees. That same year, he made his first international appearance in England’s U16 match against Ireland. Four years later, FIFA called him into the squad for the World Cup in France as planned. His outstanding performance during the tournament and especially in the politically explosive match USA vs. Iran made him internationally known.
Awards Urs Meier
- Second best referee in the world 2002
- German Television Award 2006
- 7 x Swiss referee of the year
- Golden Honorary Member of the Swiss Football Association
After the World Cup, Urs Meier refereed in the Champions League as well as the UEFA Cup, and also officiated at the European Championship in the Netherlands in 2000. Two years later, a panel of experts voted him the second best referee in the world. In December 2004 – after more than 880 games – he ended his refereeing career with the FC Basel versus FC Thun match.
Urs Meier is regarded as a brilliant speaker and crystal-clear analyst. The Süddeutsche Zeitung has described him as a “gifted speaker with wit and self-irony” who skilfully transfers his messages “from the green soccer pitch to real life.”