The "controversial" Spanish referee Matteo Lahoz, who was subjected to a major attack in the World Cup in Qatar, was repeatedly attacked, especially by Argentine star Lionel Messi, but this time the attack came from the Spanish League after he "spoiled" the Barcelona-Valencia derby, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

And after Lahoz distributed 16 yellow cards in the Argentina-Netherlands match in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar, the most famous 17 cards - including 15 yellow cards and two red cards for a double warning - in the Barcelona-Espanyol match on Saturday, which aroused great discontent with him from both teams.

The main shouts of the crowd at the Camp Nou were directed at the referee, "Get out, get out", and other strong and offensive shouts, especially after the first half hour, and they increased in the last part of the derby.

Lahoz expelled players Jordi Alba (Barcelona) and Vinicius Souza (Valencia) after they received a second warning, in addition to warning 6 players from each team, and Xavi, coach of Barcelona, ​​​​was warned from the bench.

Xavi did not intercede for his praise of Lahouz in the press conference before the match, but he also received a warning, and the reason he wrote in the match report was "to protest against my decisions."

Messi and Lahoz

In almost the same way as he managed the Barcelona derby, Lahoz "spoiled" the confrontation between Argentina and the Netherlands in the World Cup, to which objections poured in from all the players of the Argentine national team, led by Messi, who blamed the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) for appointing a referee of this level to manage a big match in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. .

The FIFA Referees Committee confirmed that the Argentines' objections and dissatisfaction with even the Dutch were right, and that his decisions "spoiled" the match, which led to his immediate return to Spain, although he was scheduled to continue until the end of the World Cup.

Messi appeared angry after the end of the match, which was decided by penalty kicks in favor of Argentina, and he criticized harshly the Ahoz, who distributed 16 yellow cards during the match, and said, "I do not want to evaluate or comment on the performance of the referees, but I do not think that the decisions were sometimes in our favor, but rather they were harmful to us in Sometimes, we suffered a lot from it, the match was generally tough and we could have excluded this match from the World Cup, but that did not happen.

Messi added, "We must say that the referee cannot be spoken to and be frank in our conversation with him, but people saw what happened. Before the match we were apprehensive because we knew what would happen, and (the International Federation) FIFA should take care of this and not appoint a referee like him to lead a match." With this importance, the referee should not be at this level."

Indeed, Messi's wish was fulfilled, and the referee was excluded from the World Cup, and he returned to his country the next day directly.

Lahoz speaks with Messi during the Argentina-Netherlands match (Reuters)

Lahoz problem

As a former international referee, I see that Lahoz, despite his arbitration in one of the strongest European leagues, suffers from some arbitration afflictions that fall on him in those crises, and they are briefly as follows:

  • Love to appear and self-astrology

Where the referee tends to love appearing in the match and to involve himself in the events, but rather to manufacture them sometimes in an attempt to show his stardom, and this is a serious scourge for any referee, as there is an arbitration rule recognized in this milieu, which is that the best referee is the one who does not feel it on the field.

  • Excessive cards in search of a strong character

If we follow Lahoz in most of his matches, we find that he wastes the yellow cards, which is what implicates him in the red cards, as happened in the Barcelona derby, and the motive for his warnings is to show that he is a strong personality, and this is a big mistake. .

Lahoz warns Ramos in a strange way in El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid (Reuters - Archive)

  • Frequent talk with players and coaches

Lahoz talks a lot with players and coaches, and this reduces his prestige on the field and wastes time. The instructions are always given to the referees to reduce talking as much as possible and to suffice with the whistle and cards with the use of body language only.

  • Technical weakness

Lahoz suffers from poor techniques that result in some technical errors that bring objections to him from the players.

  • Former international referee