The Spanish referee, Mateo Lahoz, was deprived of leading the World Cup final match, after reports revealed that his name had been excluded from the list of referees for the semi-final matches and the determination of the third and final place, after scathing statements by Argentine star Lionel Messi and his colleague Emiliano Martinez, which followed the Netherlands match in the quarter-finals.
The match between Argentina and the Netherlands on Friday witnessed tension between the players of the two teams and violent interventions that were not matched by many colored cards by the Spanish referee, which prompted Messi to leave after the match, saying: I do not want to talk about arbitration because we are subject to penalties, but everyone saw what happened, I think FIFA should He intervenes because it is not possible to put a referee in this performance for a match of this size and importance, as the referee is not qualified to fail.
And Emiliano Martinez, the Argentine goalkeeper, added criticism of the referee, saying: The referee counted all the decisions in favor of the Netherlands, counted 10 minutes as extra time without reasons, and gave them many free kicks outside the penalty area, two or three, he wanted them to score, so I hope he does not lead us Future match because it is useless.
On Monday, FIFA announced the appointment of the arbitration crew for the Argentina-Croatia match on Tuesday in the semi-finals, led by Italian Daniele Orsato, before the Spanish “Marca” and a number of international newspapers published the exclusion of Lahoz from the World Cup.
And the Spanish newspaper indicated that Lahoz was one of the favorite referees of the Italian Pierluigi Collina, Chairman of the Referees Committee in FIFA, and that he would have led the final by a large percentage had it not been for the statements of the Argentine players after the match.