Antonio Mateu Lahoz drew the anger of almost every player on the field and even on the bench in the quarterfinals between Argentina and the Netherlands: The Spanish referee set a crazy World Cup record with his flood of cards.
It seemed Spanish to Lionel Messi – and the Argentine superstar wasn’t alone. Referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz, as the “card player”, turned everyone and everyone against himself in a memorable quarter-final game. The official FIFA match report showed 17 (!) yellow cards and one yellow-red card – a lone World Cup record! “Lahoz should have moved away from his generous line in the 89th minute mentioned at the latest,” judges ntv.de referee expert Alex Feuerherdt from “Collinas Erben”. After that it got even wilder. “Lahoz is often successful with his empathy, but today he lost the players at some point.”
“I’m pretty upset,” Messi scolded with a fierce look. No, he didn’t really want to talk about the Spanish referee, “because then you’ll be punished immediately” – but then he got angry. “You can’t be honest and say what you think or they will ban you for a game. But people saw what happened.” FIFA must act, “they cannot nominate a referee for such an important game who does not meet the requirements”. Messi, who was also warned, was lucky that he did not see a yellow card earlier after an intentional handball. “We were worried before the game because we know how he is,” he rumbled. Because this dispute has a history (more on that below).
Lahoz had actually done his job very well beforehand, as expert Feuerherdt judges: “It was probably the most difficult World Cup game for a referee in decades. I would have Lahoz, who was very good at this World Cup before, for one of the top favorites for the Held the final. But it shouldn’t come to that anymore.” Also because he had failed with his style. “There were cards against the restive benches and the, shall we say, unorthodox attempt at de-escalation in the 75th when Lahoz simply paused as goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez faced off with the ball in his hands and Luuk de Jong nose-to-nose.” During this interruption, Lahoz blew 21 (!) double whistles in a row “without the players being interested,” explains the expert. “They just kept rolling. The yellow cards at the end of that scene didn’t mean anything.”
The sticking point for the ntv.de expert was the 89th minute, “when Leandro Paredes first ruthlessly took Nathan Aké off his feet and then threw the ball into the Dutch bench before van Dijk violently hit it with his chest on the ground after a long run bumped.” Lahoz’ sprawling speeches kept coming up empty, the referee just couldn’t get any rest into the game. “The excessive use of the whistle may be a trademark, but it ultimately seems helpless when players ignore it,” said Feuerherdt.
Back to Messi and his history with Lahoz: At the end of 2020, the sports teacher with the loose hand showed the then Barça star yellow because he had taken off his jersey when celebrating a goal – in accordance with the rules. But underneath it Messi wore a shirt from his former club Newell’s Old Boys – a tribute to Diego Maradona, who also played there. Messi fined 601 euros – insult to majesty.
Things were even worse against the Netherlands (4:3 on pens). The game, which was characterized by hatred, slipped away from Lahoz, with ridiculous theatrics and random whistles, the 45-year-old made “everyone an enemy”, as the Spanish newspaper “AS” wrote about the “disastrous” performance. Especially Messi and Martinez. “The referee is crazy, arrogant. You say something to him and he insults you,” said the goalkeeper. Mateu Lahoz only whistled against Argentina – Louis van Gaal rightly complained about the “dubious” penalty to 0:2 – and probably wanted to take revenge for Spain’s World Cup elimination (under Argentine referee Fernando Rapallini). “I hope we don’t get the referee again. He’s useless. The worst referee in the World Cup,” said Martinez.