Copa America final referee has awkward history with Lionel Messi
The Copa America final in the early hours of Monday morning will be refereed by Raphael Claus, who previously had a heated run-in with Lionel Messi a few years ago.
Messi and Argentina are on the verge of creating more history as they look to become the first nation to defend the Copa America as World Cup champions. Argentina will face Colombia after Crystal Palace’s Jefferson Lerma scored the only goal of their fiery semi-final against Uruguay.
While Argentina enter the final as favourites, their fans have been left furious at the officiating selection. Claus and Messi previously got to know each other during Argentina’s clash against Paraguay in 2020 when Messi took issue with Claus’ decisions and was spotted yelling “two times you’ve f***ed us”, following a number of controversial decisions that went against the Albiceleste.
Argentina were held to a 1-1 draw by Paraguay in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying stage as Messi was left frustrated when he saw a goal disallowed following intervention from VAR. Paraguay had earlier opened the scoring from a first-half penalty which was converted by Angel Romero before Nicolas Gonzalez equalised just before the break.
Fans have also been left baffled by the decision to have a Brazilian official in charge of a key Argentina game given the long-standing bitter hatred the two most successful South American football nations have for each other. However, one fan on social media pointed out that Brazil have twice had Argentinian referees in the competition this year.
Claus has been a senior international referee since 2015 and he’s regarded as one of the continent’s top officials. The 44-year-old took charge of two group-stage games at the 2022 World Cup, including England’s opening demolition win against Iran in Qatar. He previously officiated Mexico and Venezuela’s group stage match earlier in the tournament without incident.
Argentina booked their final place with a routine 2-0 win over Canada thanks to goals either side of half-time from Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez and the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner. The world champions have conceded just once in their five tournament games so far – an added-time Ecuador equaliser in the quarter-final, before the Albiceleste went on to win on penalties.
The end of Colombia’s semi-final battle against Uruguay was overshadowed by ugly scenes at full-time as footage showed Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez involved in an altercation with Colombian fans as punches could be seen being thrown by multiple people in the footage that has been shared across social media. The trouble kicked off close to where friends and family members of the Uruguay team were sat.
