With a record of 18 yellow cards and one red card in one game due to controversial decisions, the Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz who officiated the ‘Argentina vs. Netherlands’ quarterfinals match has been reportedly been sent home from the world cup tournament.
It is reported that the VAR officials of this match were pardoned and will have options to participate in future competitions.
The game which caused Antonio problems ended 2-2 in extra time and went into a decisive penalty shoot which Argentina ultimately claimed the victory (4-3).
In the same game, midfielder Leandro Paredes kicked the ball into the Netherlands bench with Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk responding by bumping him into the ground, resulting in multiple bookings as the game seemed to spiral out of control and by the end of the match, two of Argentina’s coaching staff had been given yellow cards and three players had been booked during the penalty shootouts.
“I don’t want to speak about referees because they will sanction you. But people saw what happened. I think FIFA must take care of this. It cannot put a referee like that for a match of such magnitude, of such importance. The referee cannot fail to be up to the task,” Argentina’s captain Lionel Messi said expressing his frustration during a post match interview where he asked FIFA to look into the issue.
FIFA has also announced that Argentine referees Fernando Rapallani and Facundo Tello will not be given any more matches for the rest of the tournament due to a conflict of interest as Argentina advances to the semis.
