Ľuboš Micheľ (; born 16 May 1968) is a retired Slovak football referee. Referee career At a young age, Micheľ refereed a number of games in Lebanon. Micheľ became a FIFA referee at the age of 25. Micheľ 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. Micheľ officiated at Euro 2004, taking charge of 3 games, including the quarter-final between Sweden and the Netherlands. He issued 16 yellow cards and 0 reds at an average of 5.33 cards per game, placing him sixth on the cards per game table. In the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, during the semi-final second leg match between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield in which the home team won by 1–0 and hence qualified for the Final, there was debate over whether a "ghost goal" had been scored by Liverpool winger Luis García. A computerised 're-enactment' suggested the ball had not crossed the line, and that Micheľ would have been unable to see it from his angle, while motion expert Mike Spann concluded that Micheľ had made the correct decision. Micheľ himself stated that his decision was based on the reaction of the assistant referee. Micheľ 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. Micheľ 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 Vidić'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 October 23, 2008, he retired from active referee activity due to problems with his Achilles’ tendon. His last match was the game Metalurh Zaporizhya against Metalist Kharkiv in the Ukrainian Premier League. Micheľ was ranked the world's third best referee in 2005 by the IFFHS, second best in 2006 and third best again in 2007. 2002 FIFA World Cup When Micheľ took charge of the Paraguay v South Africa game at the 2002 FIFA World Cup,