Antonio Mateu Lahoz

Early and personal life Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz was born on 12 March 1977 in Algímia d'Alfara, a village in Valencia Province on Spain's eastern coast. He has a large family, with two brothers and three sisters. His elder brother, mother and late father influenced his decision to take up refereeing; and Mateu Lahoz was considered a likely candidate to succeed Rubiales as RFEF president following the Rubiales affair.

Mateu Lahoz also worked as a physical education teacher before becoming a football referee. His elder sister is a teacher, and prior to his retirement he said he could see himself continuing in that career if he left football. He lives in Valencia and has two sons.

Career Spain

In 2008, Mateu Lahoz began working as a referee in La Liga, becoming established as one of the most prominent referees in Spain during his career.

In 2012, he refereed in the Supercopa de España. It was around this time that he first became known for a particular style, as it was commented on by then-Real Madrid manager José Mourinho; this response was praise, with Mourinho finding it a pleasant difference that Mateu Lahoz preferred talking to players over immediately disciplining them, and that what he did kept the game moving.

Mateu Lahoz was the referee in 2014 Copa del Rey Final between Real Madrid and main rivals Barcelona. In May 2014, he stood out for booking Barcelona's Lionel Messi for dissent when Messi protested an offside call; shown to be onside, Mateu Lahoz supposedly apologised for the mistake after the game. In 2019, Mateu Lahoz had another notable run-in with Barcelona, showing two red cards in a minute: the first to Ronald Araújo for a reportedly debatable professional foul, the second a straight red to Ousmane Dembélé for supposedly protesting that decision. The severity of the second card was criticised, with some criticising the application of a card at all: Messi noted that Dembélé did not speak Spanish at the time, questioning how he would have been able to dissent. More controversially, Mateu Lahoz awarded a penalty to Getafe for handball, and sent off the Mallorca defender, Franco Russo. The most notable point of the match was Mateu Lahoz approaching Getafe striker Enes Ünal in the tunnel at half-time to say Ünal "owed him one"; having shown Ünal a yellow card in the first half, spectators were surprised when Mateu Lahoz did not send off Ünal after he then elbowed Russo. Ünal and Russo were two of the four shown yellows at once. Mallorca filed formal complaints with both La Liga and the RFEF regarding Mateu Lahoz' decisions. In response, the arbitration committee sat him out for two matchdays, reported to be for what he said to Ünal. Xavi told the press after the match that he did not blame Mateu Lahoz for the result, but had told him at the end of the match that he had lost control (for which Mateu Lahoz gave Xavi a yellow card). the only card shown in this match. The RFEF did not assign him to another match in any capacity for two weeks, with the arbitration committee saying his absence was not a punishment. He was given his next refereeing appointment on 19 January, though CCMA suggested that he was brought back in because two other officials, who had made a particularly notable error, were being sat out.

He retired from La Liga on 4 June 2023 after 288 matches, being received with a guard of honour and standing ovation at his last match.

International From 2011 to 2023, he was also a FIFA listed international referee. at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil; the UEFA Euro 2020; On 29 May 2021, Mateu Lahoz refereed the 2021 Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea. A more natural game, he still produced a much-discussed moment when he helped Antonio Rüdiger, on the ground injured, to stand up, then immediately showed him a yellow card. On 9 December 2022, Mateu Lahoz was the referee in the "Battle of Lusail", the quarter-final match between the Netherlands and Argentina; he issued a record 18 yellow cards (to 15 players, including two to Denzel Dumfries that saw him sent off after both the match and penalty shoot-out had concluded, and to Argentina's manager and assistant manager). The number of cards, as well as their use, was criticised: some were deemed too harsh and some too lenient, with other incidents in the match (which at one point broke into an on-pitch brawl involving the entire Dutch substitutes' bench) getting completely overlooked. BBC Sport's Emma Smith wrote in her match report that he "did not help matters, to be kind. To be unkind, he had an absolute shocker - brandishing his yellow card with abandon ratcheted up tensions considerably, and by the time he finally showed red to Dumfries, he had long since lost all control." Smith also noted various players' unimpressed reactions to the referee. while CBS Sports reported that Mateu Lahoz had been sent home after the match.

Response

Mateu Lahoz distinguished himself from his peers in refereeing, though his quirks in arbitration have changed over time. Initially noted for being particularly talkative, which some saw as preferable to being strict and others found too lenient and distracting, his particular style reportedly became more erratic: at points he chose to converse with players at large, while at others he would directly give cards for minor infractions, including to people asking him about other cards. English journalist of Spanish football Sid Lowe coined the term "mateulahozing" as a verb to describe refereeing that draws attention to itself. – in this month he refereed just two matches, both particularly high-profile, while handing out over 35 cards. From these games, he has the records for handing out the most cards in a World Cup match and the most cards in a La Liga match. Barcelona's Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong, who "somehow survived" playing both of these matches without receiving a card, said it was "chaos [...] I don't know what happened exactly". After the first of the matches, the 2022 World Cup quarter-final between the Netherlands and Argentina, Spanish fans were reportedly grateful for Mateu Lahoz' performance; notorious in Spain and somewhat recognised for his previous international exploits, these fans felt the prominent match revealed the lack of quality in Spanish refereeing in general and "everyone else finally knew what they [Spanish teams] were up against".

Major matches refereed