Egypt have filed a formal complaint with FIFA following their World Cup defeat to Argentina, demanding the officials at the heart of the controversy be kicked out of the competition.
The defending world champions were on the brink of a last 16 exit in Atlanta on Tuesday before staging a remarkable comeback. Trailing 2-0 with 11 minutes left on the clock, Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernandez struck to rescue La Albiceleste – setting up a quarter-final showdown with Switzerland.
Should Argentina win that game, they could meet England in a titanic semi-final if the Three Lions beat Norway on Saturday.
Their fightback against Egypt was clouded in controversy however with The Pharaohs denied a penalty moments before Julian Alvarez started the counter that led to Fernandez’s late winner.
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Alvarez tackled Mohamed Salah inside the penalty box, appearing to catch his foot before taking the ball. Immediately after as the ball broke loose, Alexis Mac Allister appeared to pull Hamdi Fathy. VAR did not appear to check either incident with Argentina scoring moments later.
Egypt had already seen a goal ruled out earlier in the game after Zico capped a wonderful counter attack. A VAR checked deemed Lisandro Martinez had been fouled in the build-up.
According to Argentina’s TYC Sports, president of the Egyptian Football Association Hany Abo Rida has demanded a formal investigation into the refereeing decisions.
As part of his complaint, he has requested the match official from Wednesday’s game, Francois Letexier, and his team be excluded from refereeing for the remainder of the competition.
Egypt are demanding an investigation into their disallowed goal and the two infringements that took place moments before Argentina’s third goal.
Fifa are yet to take any decision on Egypt’s request with their coaching staff and players furiously accusing the officials and the competition of favouring the defending world champions.
‘The referee wasn’t good, he was unfair. His injustice was clear. He persecuted us from the start of the match. He doesn’t want us to win,’ said Zico, whose goal was chalked off before scoring again later in the second-half.
‘It was a rigged game. It wasn’t our fault. That referee… it seems like this match was rigged. We were winning 2-0, and he kept coming at us.
‘Congratulations to Argentina on another World Cup, it seems.’
Head coach Hossam Hassam also launched an extraordinary attack on match officials and FIFA, accusing them of going to extreme lengths to ‘to keep Messi’ in the competition.
‘We looked better than the reigning champions – better in everything – but the result was influenced by internal factors on the pitch and external factors off it,’ he said.
‘Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.
‘In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champion received support at every level.
‘There seem to be pressures from the Argentina side on this outcome. We were objecting to the selection of the referee because of the French situation [Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup final], but everybody has to suffer at some point and we suffered.
‘We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out, it was not even checked by the VAR and our second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.
‘We have all seen the shirt pulled back [by Mac Allister] and not even a VAR check. Life is unfair, normal life is unfair, so why is there no fairness in sports?
‘I’m not convinced by this outcome and the way things unfolded in this match. I want to put it in beautiful words and say hard luck, but we have been treated unfairly and it has been an injustice.’