Spain boss Luis de la Fuente raises major concern over World Cup final referee

Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente has sounded a warning to FIFA’s choice of referee ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final.

It was confirmed earlier this week that Slovenia’s Slavko Vincic would officiate tomorrow night’s showdown between Argentina and Spain.

The 46-year-old took charge of La Albiceleste’s famous 2-1 defeat against Saudi Arabia in Qatar four years ago when he gave several contentious decision in favour of the underdogs who recored a landmark victory.

And while De la Fuente was not concerned his performance in that match would influence his decision making when the reigning European champions lock horns with their South American equivalents, he is hoped Vicinic would be wise to Argentina’s gamesmanship.

Throughout the tournament Lionel Scaloni’s side have been accused of turning to the dark arts in order to curry favour with referees, while they have also been accused of benefiting from kind draw that has limited their travel and avoided having to play in the oppressive conditions many others have been forced to contend with.

‘The referee cannot act passively and allow the rules to be broken,’ Spain’s head coach told Sport.

‘Those lines of footballing legality cannot be crossed. I have unwavering faith in the referees, but I also have unwavering faith that we clearly know what kind of match we need to approach.’

England and Egypt, in particular, struggled to keep their cool in the face of extreme provocation and De la Fuente conceded the onus is on Spain to maintain calm heads and focus on the footballing principles that have once again brought them to the point of glory.

He said: ‘They’re going to play their football, but we have to focus solely and exclusively on our own, on strengthening our style and improving it.

‘If we stray from our philosophy and our model, we will suffer.

‘We feel comfortable in the football arena, in the game, in being true to our idea, in not falling for provocations.’

De la Fuente must also consider how to go about preventing Lionel Messi from, potentially, saying farewell to the international stage in the grandest of a fashions, not that he has had much luck where that is concerned in the past.

‘I met Messi when I was coaching Sevilla’s youth teams,’ he revealed. ‘We were 0-0 when they gave a card to the player marking him. They scored four on us in 15 minutes.’

While Argentina, meanwhile, were undeniably fortunate that Messi avoided punishment for a clear red card tackle in their opening game against Algeria, goalkeeper Emi Martinez was quick to the suggestion they have been handed an easy path to the final.

‘We didn’t choose our opponents,’ he said. Look… we had to face Portugal in the quarterfinals, but Colombia dominated against Portugal.

‘Switzerland beat Colombia, and we ended up playing Switzerland.’

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