Swiss referee who put curse on Sven's men

The referee who scuppered England's dreams is a 45-year-old Swiss shopkeeper with a history of contentious decisions.

Urs Meier, whose country was beaten 3-0 by England a few days ago, is due to retire in a year's time after 27 years as an official.

Earlier this year he was cursed by seven Romanian witches after he awarded a
controversial five minutes of injury time in a Euro 2004 qualifier against Denmark.

The Danes went on to draw 2-2 and knock Romania out of the tournament.

The witches, from Craiova, declared: 'He will lose his ability to whistle, get weak legs and start to feel intense pain in his soul.'

Meier was more concerned that a Romanian newspaper printed his e-mail address — and he was bombarded by 30,000 angry messages.

Last year the referee outraged Celtic fans when he gave a bitterly-disputed
penalty that put them out of the Champions League.

Meier, a father of two young children, was also the referee when England were
eliminated from the last European Championship, in 2000 , by a defeat to
Romania.