Slavko Vincic, the Slovenian referee of the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina, has broken his silence on the biggest match of his career. He spoke frankly about its most talked-about moment: his conversation with Lionel Messi and the decision to send off Enzo Fernandez.
Vincic assessed his performance in the goalless final that stretched to 120 minutes in an interview with the Spanish newspaper "Sport". Managing the game had not been easy, he admitted, because the two teams clashed in style. Spain chased possession while Argentina worked to disrupt the play.
The only sending-off: Messi acts correctly
His most important decision, the referee reckoned, was sending off Enzo Fernandez with a second yellow card. He called it correct, and even the Argentine side raised no objection.
Yet the moment that stole the spotlight was his exchange with the Argentina captain Lionel Messi. Vincic refused to reveal the details, but he came out strongly in defence of the Argentine star's conduct.
"My conversation with Messi? I will leave that to the pitch, but I can say that he acted with great sportsmanship and behaved entirely correctly," Vincic said, a clear hint that Messi accepted his decisions and did not pressure him as so many do in matches such as these.
"It is the World Cup final," he added. "The players' mentality and their reactions are different, and given the importance of the match you have to understand everything. We were not a topic of conversation after the match, and that is proof that we did our job well. I believe our refereeing strategy was correct."
"The responsibility is immense when your entire refereeing history rests on a single match," he continued. "I knew that most of the work would be focused on managing the match, when to stop it and when to allow play to continue."
Surprise at the appointment and a dark past
Now retired at 46, Vincic admitted the appointment to the biggest final in the world had caught him off guard.
"At first I felt surprised," he said, "but then I felt proud of our team, which would represent Slovenia on this important stage, at the biggest sporting event in the world."
Nor did the Slovenian shy away from his controversial past, when police arrested him in a cabin in Bosnia and Herzegovina along with 25 other people in a case linked to prostitution and arms and drug smuggling.
He addressed it head on. "I had nothing to do with that. I accepted a lunch invitation, and it turned out to be the biggest mistake I ever made. I regret it."