Antonio Mateu Lahoz

Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz (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: The Guardian has described him as the football star "who doesn't actually play but doesn't half perform".

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; 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.

Mateu Lahoz played at under-19 level for Valencia in the División de Honor Juvenil, mostly as the back-up for future professional player Luis Rubiales; after his playing career Rubiales became president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in the later years of Mateu Lahoz's refereeing career, and Mateu Lahoz is 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.

While reflecting on the importance of referees, Mateu Lahoz said that refereeing is his happiness and 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."

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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; 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 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.

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, 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.

It was during this break that he made plans to retire at the end of the season.

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.