Lionel Messi Shows His Negative Side, Blasts FIFA

Paris Saint Germain forward, Lionel Andres Messi is never one that achieved popularity for emotional outbursts but on the night of Argentina’s victory against the Netherlands, the player was critical of FIFA and its choice of referee officiating.

Lionel Messi, the captain of Argentina, has criticized FIFA for choosing Antonio Mateu Lahoz to officiate their quarterfinal match against the Netherlands on Friday.

At the Education City Stadium, the Spaniard was in charge of the elimination game.

And the referee’s decisions was very well seen in the game as the Spanish national went on a rout of gifting yellow cards to each session of the divide on the night.

Lahoz equaled the 2006 World Cup record of 16 yellow cards issued in a 120-minute encounter between Portugal and the Netherlands.

One notable issue the Argentina squad and Lionel Messi had with on the night was the referee’s choice of awarding 10 additional minutes after the normal 90 minutes running time, giving the Netherlands team an opportunity to come right into the game and force the fixture into extra time.

Lionel Messi asserted Lahoz wasn’t qualified to officiate in Qatar in post-game interview.

He said:

“We needed this joy. I don’t want to talk about the referee, because you get sanctioned after.

“But they can’t assign a referee who is not at this level. He is the World Cup’s worst ref, by far.

“The reason he awarded 10 added minutes is because, he wanted them to draw the game.”

The former Barcelona captain wasn’t the only player vocal of the referee as fellow compatriot and teammate, Emi Martinez went on a full rant against Lahoz and the Netherlands coach, Louis van Gaal.

In Martinez’s words, he referred Lahoz’s decisions as ‘nonsense’ and advised the Netherlands boss to “learn to shut up” in response to telling his Netherlands team they have an opportunity to eliminate the Argentine team.