As reported recently by Isaac Fouto in El Partidazo de COPE, the Technical Committee of Referees informed Mateu Lahoz that he will not continue as a referee in the Spanish LaLiga. There was an option of renewing him for one more season, as happened last year with Carlos Del Cerro Grande, but they consider that Mateu's cycle on the field has already ended. And he will not continue as a VAR either. In Spain, when the time comes to retire as on-field referees, they are offered the chance to continue for a year as VAR. Del Cerro Grande has accepted the proposal, but Mateu Lahoz declined it. He does not see himself in that role, since he does not believe in video refereeing, the tool that promised to revolutionize the way of refereeing in the world. He waits to see what his future will be. Surely, there will not lack offers from other foreign competitions. Without going any further, he was asked to referee the Dubai Cup final, but he did not have the necessary permits. His last match could be the Copa del Rey final, but right now the favorite to referee the cup duel between Real Madrid and Osasuna is Jose Sanchez Martinez. (Source: Cadena COPE)
The gap that Antonio Mateu Lahoz and Carlos Del Cerro Grande will leave in the Spanish refereeing must be filled by other referees, and the CTA is already designating who will occupy the international places that will be available next year. The first name that has come out, as Cadena SER has learned, is that of Javier Alberola Rojas. At 32 years old, the referee from La Mancha will be international as of 1 January 2024, taking over from the previous generation of referees. After his debut in the 2017/2018 season, he continued in the First Division until 6 May 2022, when he was forced to take a medical break until the end of last year. "I had a health problem. At a fitness test I felt bad, my body did not react as I thought. My arm began to swell, and I decided to go to the doctor as a precaution. I had to stay hospitalized, and they had to operate on me. I had a congestion of two veins in the clavicle and the blood did not flow well. They were moments of uncertainty and fear, but everything is over now. Now I have the joy of going back and enjoying football", explained Alberola Rojas. "You are afraid, uncertain and everything is going very fast. You go out to train and with those same clothes you see yourself admitted to the hospital, it catches you when you least expect it. Logically, you even put yourself in the worst scenarios", he added. “We do not value beautiful things, and there is only one life. When you start to think a bit, you see yourself in that situation, you see it differently and you want to enjoy yourself. It has helped me to improve as an athlete and a person; there is a lot of philosophy behind it", concluded Alberola Rojas. (Source: Cadena SER)
