Antonio Mateu Lahoz

Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz (Spanish pronunciation: [anˈtonjo miˈɣel maˈtew laˈoθ]; born 12 March 1977) is a Spanish retired association football referee who refereed La Liga matches from 2008 until 2023. He is also a former international referee with experience in several editions of the FIFA World Cup. He is known for his talkative and "quirky" approach to refereeing:[2] The Guardian has described him as the football star "who doesn't actually play but doesn't half perform".[3]

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Mateu and the second or maternal family name is Lahoz.
In this article, the surname is Mateu Lahoz.
Antonio Mateu Lahoz
Mateu Lahoz in 2019
Full name Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz
Born (1977-03-12) 12 March 1977
Algímia d'Alfara, Valencia, Spain
Other occupation Physical education teacher[1]
Domestic
Years League Role
1999–2002 Spain Tercera División Referee
2002–2004 Spain Segunda División B
2004–2008 Spain Segunda División
2008–2023 Spain La Liga
International
Years League Role
2011–2023 FIFA listed Referee

Early and personal life

Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz was born on 12 March 1977[4] 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;[1] in part, the family's need for money after his father died young prompted him to move into refereeing full-time rather than becoming a footballer.[3] Mateu Lahoz played at under-19 level for Valencia in the División de Honor Juvenil, considered the back-up for future professional player Luis Rubiales; after his playing career Rubiales became president of the Spanish Football Federation in the later years of Mateu Lahoz's refereeing career.[5]

Mateu Lahoz later worked as a physical education teacher before becoming a football referee. His elder sister also works as a teacher, and he has said he could see himself continuing in that career when he retires from refereeing.[1] He lives in Valencia and has two sons.[3]

Mateu Lahoz said that refereeing is his happiness, while reflecting on the importance of the role; he enjoyed the responsibility, telling UEFA in 2021 that "part of [the] job is trying to help the players and coaches. If you can do this and be relaxed, then you'll relax them, you can communicate together, and making decisions can be much easier."[1][6]

Career

Spain
Mateu Lahoz in 2010

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.[7] Considered unpopular among Spanish football fans, Mateu Lahoz is known for his personal flair; it was reported that he would allow matches to descend into chaos by not reacting to play, and then draw more attention to himself than the game through bizarre discussions with players and controversial decisions.[8]

In 2012, he refereed in the Supercopa de España.[7] 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.[3] Barcelona manager Xavi also said, years later, that he found Mateu Lahoz talking a lot to be positive when he was a player (for Barcelona) around that time; the Barcelona manager of the time, Pep Guardiola, reportedly "wasn't such a fan".[9]

Mateu Lahoz was the referee in 2014 Copa del Rey Final between Real Madrid and main rivals Barcelona.[10] 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.[9] After a 2018 match in which a number of Mateu Lahoz' reportedly questionable decisions went against Barcelona, player Gerard Piqué had to be physically restrained when approaching him after the match.[11] 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, as was the application of a card at all, with Messi noting that Dembélé did not speak Spanish and questioning how he would have been able to dissent.[9]

A clip of Mateu Lahoz went viral on 2 April 2022; he was in charge a La Liga match between RCD Mallorca and Getafe when he gave four yellow cards in a single second. Having let a row break out between the teams, he brought two players from each side over to him before showing his card to each of them in an arc. Not seen in the clip, Mateu Lahoz then ran over to a fifth player to card him.[12] 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 Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) regarding Mateu Lahoz' decisions.[13][14] In response, the arbitration committee sat him out for two matchdays, reported to be for what he said to Ünal.[14]

On 31 December 2022, Mateu Lahoz refereed the end-of-year Catalan derby between Barcelona and local rivals Espanyol. Mateu Lahoz was already subject to criticism at the time, following a high-profile FIFA World Cup match in which he handed out many cards. Partway through the first half, he stopped play and sprinted across the pitch to talk to and kiss Barcelona manager Xavi.[3][9] Mateu Lahoz gave 15 yellow cards, including 2 to the Barcelona bench, and 4 reds, one overturned by VAR (also reported as 16 yellows and 3 reds with one overturned), during the match, which became particularly chaotic towards the end. The match ended in a draw;[3][15][16] 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 he gave Xavi a yellow card).[9] The Athletic wrote that while Mateu Lahoz did not get any major calls wrong during the match, "there is a feeling among players and coaches that when a situation gets heated and players start to lose their heads, he is unable to calm things down." It also questioned whether it was appropriate for the RFEF to have assigned Mateu Lahoz to the match, considering both his history (with Barcelona and then-recently in Qatar) and pre-existing tensions between the clubs meaning it would likely be very heated.[9]

Mateu Lahoz then refereed a Copa del Rey match between Sevilla and Linares Deportivo on 5 January 2023, showing a red card to Sevilla's manager after 17 minutes,[17] 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.[18][16] It was during this break that he made plans to retire at the end of the season.[19] 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.[20]

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.[21][22]

International

From 2011 to 2023, he was also a FIFA listed international referee.[7] He worked as a referee in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers;[23] at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil;[4] the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia (and its qualifiers);[24][25] the UEFA Euro 2020;[1] and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.[26]

He refereed a 2018 Champions League quarter-final match between Manchester City and Liverpool, during which Pep Guardiola, Manchester City's Spanish manager, notably addressed him on the pitch when half-time came.[27] Guardiola was then sent off in the second half, for speaking to Mateu Lahoz after he disallowed a City goal; Guardiola responded that he had been polite and so getting sent off was too much, also saying that "Mateu Lahoz is a special guy, he likes to be different, he likes to be special. He's a referee who likes to feel different, he's special."[6] The Offside Rule wrote that Mateu Lahoz allowed incidents between players to flare up by not paying attention to the game, and described the disallowed goal in this match as "a catastrophic error".[27] On 29 May 2021, Mateu Lahoz refereed the 2021 UEFA Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea.[28][29] 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.[12]

On 25 November 2022, Mateu Lahoz refereed Qatar's second match of their home World Cup, which left them in a position to be the worst-performing host of a World Cup; Football365 said he was "the single bravest referee at the tournament" for his decision to not even consider awarding Qatar a penalty after an incident in the box.[30] 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).[9][26][31] 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.[26][32][33] 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.[26] Argentina would go on to win this World Cup,[34] while CBS Sports reported that Mateu Lahoz had been sent home after the match.[35]

Response
Mateu Lahoz brandishing a yellow card in a 2019 Champions League game

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.[3] The manner in which Mateu Lahoz showed players cards, "striding over and thrusting yellow cards in their faces", is said to be one source of his notoriety.[9] Mateu Lahoz has been compared to English referee Mike Dean, also known for "producing multiple bizarre moments on the pitch."[12]

In Spain, Mateu Lahoz was widely accused of being a fan of Real Madrid, due to his decisions in matches featuring them or their rivals often benefitting Real Madrid; fans of the club argue that, while his decisions against other teams sometimed helped Real Madrid, he also made controversial calls that did not help them, and was an inconsistent referee in general.[8] Discussions of Mateu Lahoz' calls often involve the rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona, further contributed to by Barcelona figures feeling he lacked match control and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti instead favouring him, saying that "Mateu Lahoz is the best referee in Spain and in Europe".[9] Though considered unpopular among fans,[8] there are also people who enjoyed his refereeing for its entertainment value; Lowe has pointed to this as a reason why comical hatred of Mateu Lahoz is unfair, also arguing that while he was attention-seeking, Spanish fans and media have been happy to give him that attention.[3]

He became an international "pantomime villain" of football in December 2022[36] – in this month he refereed just two matches, both particularly high-profile, while handing out over 35 cards.[3] 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.[19][lower-alpha 1] 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;[3] notorious in Spain and somewhat recognised for his previous international exploits,[2] 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".[3]

See also

Notes
  1. Reports on the matches differ in total card count, both due to the number and timing of cards making it confusing even on the referee's report, and with some sources counting two yellows converted to reds and others not. Counting cards physically shown and not discounted, Mateu Lahoz showed 19 in each of these matches, for a total of 38.

References
  1. "'Refereeing is happiness' – Porto final referee Mateu Lahoz". 28 May 2021. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  2. McTear, Euan (5 March 2018). "Mateu Lahoz, Spain's "quirky" referee". Tifo Football. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  3. "Antonio Mateu Lahoz plays his cards wrong to make history in Catalan derby | Sid Lowe". the Guardian. 2 January 2023. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  4. "Antonio Mateu". Olympedia. 2016. Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  5. "Luis Rubiales hizo que Mateu Lahoz cambiara el fútbol por el arbitraje" [Luis Rubiales made Mateu Lahoz leave football to become a referee]. marca.com. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  6. Davies, Mathew (5 June 2022). "Wales v Ukraine ref once booked four players in seconds and sent Guardiola off". WalesOnline. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  7. "Cup final". Maraca. Archived from the original on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  8. "El Real Madrid se salvó de Mateu Lahoz con el Clásico en el horizonte". www.defensacentral.com (in Spanish). 8 October 2022. Archived from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  9. Corrigan, Dermot. "Barcelona vs Espanyol or The Mateu Lahoz Show?". The Athletic. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  10. "Copa final Bar against RM". Maraca. Archived from the original on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  11. "LaLiga - Las Palmas 1-1 Barcelona: Pique had to be restrained when arguing with referee Mateu Lahoz". MARCA in English. 1 March 2018. Archived from the original on 19 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  12. "La Liga's Mateu Lahoz takes refereeing to new heights after booking four players in a second". GiveMeSport. 2 April 2022. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  13. "Real Mallorca to lodge complaint against Saturday's referee". Majorca Daily Bulletin. 3 April 2022. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  14. "Mateu descansó dos jornadas tras el Getafe-Mallorca por la frase "me debes una"". Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 25 April 2022. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  15. Summerscales, Robert. "Referee Mateu Lahoz Issues 15 Yellow Cards And Two Reds As Barcelona And Espanyol Draw". Futbol on FanNation. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
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  19. "Controversial referee Lahoz makes retirement plan after harsh recent criticism from Barcelona, Argentina & Netherlands". Goal. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  20. esport3 (19 January 2023). "Mateu Lahoz surt de la "nevera" i el designen per a un partit d'aquesta jornada". CCMA (in Catalan). Archived from the original on 19 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  21. Cifuentes, Pedro (4 June 2023). "El último soplido de Mateu Lahoz". ABC (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  22. Castro, Juan (4 June 2023). "Mateu Lahoz, una despedida por la puerta grande, lágrimas... y ovación final del estadio". Marca (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  23. "Statistics for ANTONIO MATEU LAHOZ". World Referee. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  24. "Mateu lahoz un record mundial en un mar de criticas". AS. 10 December 2022. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  25. "Two PRO referees selected for 2018 FIFA World Cup". Professional Referee Organization. 23 November 2017. Archived from the original on 19 January 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  26. Smith, Emma (10 December 2022). "World Cup 2022: Netherlands and Argentina descend into chaos as new yellow card record set". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  27. "Michael Oliver spot on to award Real Madrid penalty says Mark Halsey in Ref Review". The Offside Rule. 14 April 2018. Archived from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  28. "Referee teams appointed for UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League finals". UEFA. 12 May 2021. Archived from the original on 1 June 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  29. Siddall, Harry. "'He's Come Out of Retirement For Us!', 'And We Thought Marriner Was Bad' – Lots of Man City Fans React to Champions League Announcement". Sports Illustrated Manchester City News, Analysis and More. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  30. Stead, Matthew (25 November 2022). "Qatar almost the first out of their own house party as 2022 World Cup is given a host it deserves". Football365. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  31. "FIFA World Cup 2022: Controversial referee Mateu Lahoz sent home after Lionel Messi outburst". India Today. Archived from the original on 15 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  32. McNulty, Phil (10 December 2022). "World Cup 2022: Messi the master as Argentina beat Netherlands in chaotic Qatar classic". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  33. Hamilton, Tom (9 December 2022). "Argentina secure semifinal place over Netherlands after one of the wildest wins of Qatar 2022". ESPN. Archived from the original on 9 December 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  34. "World Cup 2022: An explosion of joy as Argentina wins". BBC News. 19 December 2022. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  35. Makinde, Tosin. "Unserious World Cup: The most ridiculous performances from the quarterfinals and semifinals". CBSSports. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  36. "Referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz put 'in the fridge' for card-happy performances". OneFootball. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
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