Luis Medina Cantalejo - 2006 World Cup

2006 World Cup

He was promoted at the last minute to officiate matches at the finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup after assistants of two other referees failed to meet the FIFA standards. He subsequently officiated three matches at the 2006 FIFA World Cup: Germany v. Poland, Netherlands v. Argentina, and Italy v. Australia.

During the Italy vs Australia game he made several controversial decisions, including showing Italy's Marco Materazzi a straight red card for a challenge on Australia's Marco Bresciano, and a disputed penalty kick awarded after contact between Italy's Fabio Grosso and Australia's Lucas Neill in the penalty area, four minutes into stoppage time. The penalty kick, which Francesco Totti converted to give Italy a 1–0 victory, was the final kick of the match. When asked about the penalty call, Australia coach Guus Hiddink said "If you saw the replay, I don't think there was any doubt that it was not a penalty," while Italy coach Marcello Lippi said "There were two fouls on (Grosso). He didn't go down on the first and he continued dribbling, and then he sustained another clear foul. (Neill) didn't throw his body on the field because he thought he'd get the ball." In April 2006, Medina made a similarly controversial call in a game between Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona, which drew scathing criticism from Real Madrid player David Beckham

Two days after the Australia-Italy game FIFA announced that Medina was one of the twelve referees retained for the remainder of the tournament. He refereed the quarter final between Brazil and France on 1 July.

Medina was appointed as fourth official for the FIFA World Cup Final between Italy and France and was involved in another important decision during the final, as none of the three officials on the field saw Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi. He informed assistant referee Dario Garcia, who in turn told referee Horacio Elizondo what had happened. The French captain was then shown the red card. Medina denied press reports and French allegations that it was only after seeing video evidence of Zidane's infraction that he chose to intervene.