Three of the four referees who took charge of the World Cup quarterfinals have not been selected by FIFA to call the semifinals

FIFA has retained 12 referees for the closing stages of the Qatar World Cup, including only one official from the quarterfinals, according to several media reports.

After calls of controversy from several players in the quarterfinals round citing referee decisions, including comments from superstar Lionel Messi, FIFA will only include Brazillian official Wilton Sampaio.

Spanish official Antonio Mateu Lahoz has reportedly been one of the referees sent home after dishing out a record number of 18 yellow cards.

Argentina’s dramatic 4-3 penalty shootout victory over the Netherlands witnessed a lashing out from Messi and his teammates, who described Lahoz as “the worst referee in the tournament.”

After 15 players were booked with a yellow card, Messi spoke out on the game, citing Lahoz to blame.

“I don’t want to talk about the referee because you can’t be honest,” Messi told Argentine TV. “If you talk, they sanction you; FIFA must think about it, they can’t put a referee who isn’t up to the task for these instances.”

Despite buzzes of complaints about Brazillian official Wilton Sampaio by players and commentators, FIFA has kept the referee since Brazil was knocked out of the tournament.

“The referees’ decision-making tonight was really poor. It would be nice to see if he comes out to say if he’s had a good game or not,” Harry Maguire said in the post-conference regarding Sampaio.

Concerning the semi-finals, Italian Daniele Orsato will take charge of the Argentina and Croatia match-up on Tuesday, with Cesar Ramos from Mexico refereeing France and Morocco.

The referee chosen for the final will depend on the teams who qualify and could see the likes of Qatar’s Abdulrahman Al-Jassim, United Arab Emirates Muhammad Abdulla Hassan Muhammad, England’s Anthony Taylor, and Poland’s Szymon Marciniak, as none of their countries have qualified.