ýuboà ¡ Micheþ (; born 16 May 1968) is a retired Slovak football referee. He is considered one of the best Slovak international referees in the history. He regularly refereed Champions League matches with the highlight being at the 2008 Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea. He officiated at World Cups in 2002 and 2006 and at the 2004 and 2008 EUROs. He ended his refereeing career in 2008.
Micheþ debuted in the Slovak Superliga on 16 May 1993 in the match between Humenné vs. Preà ¡ov (0:0). Shortly after domestic debut, he became a FIFA referee at the age of 25 (in 1993). At a young age, Micheþ refereed a number of games in Lebanon.
In 1995, Micheþ officiated the semifinal at Euro U16 and in 1998 he was selected as a referee in the final game at Euro U21 in Romania.
Micheþ was one of three Europeans - along with German Fandel and Frenchman Breu - to referee the tournament at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (Nigeria - Honduras, Republic of Korea - Chile).
When Micheþ took charge of the Paraguay v South Africa game at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he became the first Slovak to referee a FIFA World Cup Finals match. (Three Slovak referees, Martin Macka (1958), Karol Galba (1962, 1966) and Vojtech Christov (1982, 1986) count to Czechoslovakia).
Micheþ was selected to referee the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville, Spain, between Porto and Celtic, one of the biggest appointments for a UEFA referee.
Micheþ officiated at Euro 2004, taking charge of 3 games, including the quarter-final between Sweden and the Netherlands. He issued 16 yellow cards, but no reds, at an average of 5.33 cards per game, placing him sixth on the cards-per-game table.
In the 2004âÂÂ05 UEFA Champions League, during the semi-final second leg match between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield in which the home team won by 1âÂÂ0 and hence qualified for the Final, there was debate over whether a "ghost goal" had been scored by Liverpool winger Luis GarcÃÂa. A computerised 're-enactment' suggested the ball had not crossed the line, and that Micheþ would have been unable to see it from his angle, while motion expert Mike Spann concluded that Micheþ had made the correct decision. Micheþ himself stated that his decision was based on the reaction of the assistant referee because had he not awarded Liverpool the goal, he would have awarded them a penalty kick and sent off Chelsea goalkeeper Petr ÃÂech for a foul on Milan Baroà ¡ instead. After studying a series of still images of the incident, motion expert Dr. Mike Spann concluded that Micheþ had made the correct decision by signalling a goal.
Micheþ was ranked the world's third best referee in 2005 by the IFFHS, second best in 2006 and third best again in 2007.
Micheþ was selected as one of 21 referees for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. After his performance in the first two rounds, FIFA chose him as one of twelve referees to officiate the final eight games of the tournament. Micheþ has handed out the second highest number of cards per match (8) of any referee in the tournament. The only person with a higher tally is Valentin Ivanov, who handed out an average of ten.
Micheþ matches have been considered tempestuous. In the group stage he took charge of the game between Portugal and Mexico; the game ending 2âÂÂ1 to Portugal. He issued 8 yellow cards, sent a player off for diving, gave two penalties, and rejected a claim for one in the second half.
In the Round of 16 he took charge of the Brazil-Ghana match, won by Brazil 3âÂÂ0. He sent off one Ghanaian player for diving and ordered the Ghana coach, Ratomir DujkoviÃÂ, to leave the field after the coach argued with him about an offside goal.
Micheþ refereed the quarterfinals loss of Argentina to the hosts Germany, which was tied 1âÂÂ1 and went into extra time and ended on penalty kicks. He handed out seven yellows during the match. Micheþ gave a red card to Argentina's unused substitute Leandro Damián Cufré for kicking Per Mertesacker during the post-game melee involving the two teams and some members of their coaching staffs.
Micheþ was selected to be the referee of the 2008 UEFA Champions League final, the match between Manchester United and Chelsea. The match went to a penalty shootout which, after much excitement, was eventually won by Manchester United. Micheþ became only the second referee to give a red card in a UEFA Champions League final (the first being Terje Hauge in 2006) when he sent Didier Drogba off in extra time for a slap at Nemanja VidiÃÂ's chin.
Michel was selected to be a referee at the UEFA Euro 2008, where he refereed the Group A game between Switzerland and Turkey, the Group C game between France and Italy and the quarter-final match between Netherlands and Russia.
On 23 October 2008, he retired from active referee activity due to problems with his Achillesâ tendon. His last match was the game Metalurh Zaporizhya against Metalist Kharkiv in the Ukrainian Premier League.
Micheþ was a manager of a car tyre factory outside of refereeing, and previously a teacher. He speaks English, Russian, German and Polish in addition to his native Slovak. He founded the society Talent to support young Slovak football players. Micheþ has been a Member of National Council of the Slovak Republic since 2006.
On 27 October 2008, Micheþ signed a contract with Shakhtar Donetsk as the head of the international competitions department.
For a brief period of time between 2006 and 2010, ýuboà ¡ Micheþ was serving as a lawmaker in the Slovak parliament, where he was elected in the 2006 elections.
Between December 2015 and November 2018, he worked for PAOK FC as Sporting Director and president. Since September 2021, Micheþ has worked as president for 1. FC Tatran Preà ¡ov.
In October 2022, Micheþ ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Preà ¡ov.
In August 2024, Micheþ step down from president role at 1. FC Tatran Preà ¡ov due to family and work reasons. In the 19 July 2025, he was again named as president of the club from Preà ¡ov.