Markus Merk

Dr. Markus Merk (born March 15, 1962 in Kaiserslautern) is a top-level German football referee. He is a two-time winner of the FIFA Referee of the Year Award (2004 and 2005), and six-time winner of the German Referee of the Year Award and the record holder in games refereed in the Bundesliga. In 2005, Merk was awarded the German Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit) in recognition of his service to football and his charity work in India.

Referee data

 * Full name - Markus Merk
 * Date of birth: 15.03.1962
 * Place of birth: Kaiserslautern (GER)
 * Hometown: Otterbach (GER)
 * Profession: dentist

Bundesliga career
In 1988, Merk was appointed the youngest Bundesliga referee ever, aged 25, representing his home club 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He became a FIFA referee four years later, and officiated at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

In the following years, Merk established himself as a headstrong, reliable referee. He was elected an unprecented six times as German Referee of the Year, gaining respect from players and colleagues all over the league. He also swiftly translated his Bundesliga success into international play, becoming one of the best German referees of all time. As of late, Merk has performed poorly in refereeing international matches and many doubt of his capacity to continue refereeing at the highest level.

Nowadays, most German fans associate Merk today with the controversial last game day of the 2000/2001 Bundesliga season. Prior to the last match, Bayern Munich was leading Schalke by one point, however, Schalke had the better goal differential. Merk was refereeing the match Hamburger SV vs Munich. In the 93rd minute, HSV were leading Bayern 1-0, and Schalke had just won 5-3 versus SpVgg Unterhaching. Then Merk awarded a controversial indirect free kick for Bayern. Bayern's Patrik Andersson converted the kick, Schalke lost the title, and Merk suffered intense verbal and physical abuse after that. Merk hasn't refereed a game in Schalke's Arena AufSchalke stadium since.

FIFA career
Merk was referee in the 1992 Olympics (1 call-up), the UEFA Euro 2000 (3), the 2002 FIFA World Cup (2) and the UEFA Euro 2004 (3). In that tournament, he also whistled the final, becoming the first German referee since Rudi Glöckner of East Germany in 1970, to helm a World Cup or European Championship Finals. His assistants were Jan-Hendrik Salver and Christian Schräer. Merk also refereed the 1997 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final, and the 2003 UEFA Champions League Final.

In the 2006 World Cup, he whistled three matches with mediocre results. After the match Australia-Brazil, he was verbally blasted by Harry Kewell for allegedly lop-sided, pro-Brazil refereeing, and after Ghana's victory over the United States, US Coach Bruce Arena and several players heavily criticized Merk's controversial call where he awarded a vital penalty kick to Ghana. . The United States vs. Ghana game was the last game in the 2006 World Cup for Merk, as he was not chosen to referee any of the games in the knockout stages. Merk was highly critical of the whole FIFA refereeing process after that, stating in the German sports TV show das aktuelle Sportstudio, stating it "robbed me two weeks of my life" being forced to stay in the referee camp without a call-up, and adding a mere two was a bitterly meagre payoff regarding the fact he (among others) had to visit countless seminars and were sent on small junior tournaments all over the world to merely assist, comparing it to as if Ronaldinho would have to agree to sit on the bench for the Brazilian U 20 in order to qualify for the World Cup. Markus was also extremely criticized for his performance in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, validating a Serbian goal in clear off-side, during the Portugal-Serbia game. Besides the wrongly validated goal, his act was very much like the one at the Euro 2004 final, claiming every Serbian dive was a foul, giving only two minutes compensation, and ending the game after only 1m20 had elapsed.

Accolades

 * FIFA Referee of the Year: 2004, 2005
 * DFB German Referee of the Year: 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006
 * Bundesverdienstkreuz 2005, handed out by Kurt Beck

Charity
The religious Merk is active helping slums in India, providing basic dental care on the poor since 1991. He helps the Indienhilfe Kaiserslautern, which erects schools, housings for the homeless, and basic medical care. He is also well known for his charity work in helping the Serbian football team.

Personal life
A dentist by trade, Merk lives in Otterbach with his wife and son. He was a professional dentist until 2005, when he stopped practising because of his opposition to the so-called Praxisgebühr, a measure introduced by the German government taxing patients visiting doctors. Today, he leads motivational seminars.

During his youth and teens, Merk suffered ridicule because of his high-pitched, squeaky voice. After undergoing extensive speech therapy, he now talks in a normal baritone. (Reference: his book BeWEGEnd).

Merk is also one of the fittest referees in the game. He regularly laps his colleagues in the annual fitness tests, and in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of April 15, 2006 (p. 55), it is said that he has run a marathon in a time of 2:42. In comparison, the Olympic record is only about half an hour faster. He is also a dedicated triathlete. 

As a side note, "Merk" is the imperative form of the German verb "merken" (to notice, to remember), a fitting nickname for a referee. For this reason, his homepage is named merk-es-dir.de ("remember-it.de").

Literature

 * Markus Merk: BeWEGEnd
 * Markus Merk: Untersuchungen zur Formänderung kalt- und heißpolymerisierender Prothesenkunststoffe nach Behandlung im Ultraschallbad ("Examinations on the form change of cold- and hot-polymerising prothesis plastics after ultrasound treatment"), Dissertation by Markus Merk, University of Cologne, 1990