[3] 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.

[8] 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.

[10] Mateu Lahoz was the referee in 2014 Copa del Rey Final between Real Madrid and main rivals Barcelona.

[10] 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.

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.

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.

"[7] 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".

[29][30] 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.

[10][27][32] 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.

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."

English journalist of Spanish football Sid Lowe coined the term "mateulahozing" as a verb to describe refereeing that draws attention to itself.

[10] Mateu Lahoz has been compared to English referee Mike Dean, also known for "producing multiple bizarre moments on the pitch.

[10] Though considered unpopular among fans,[9] 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.

[20][a] 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".