The Egyptian Football Federation has asked FIFA to remove the officiating group involved in Egypt’s 3-2 World Cup Round of 16 loss to Argentina, alleging serious errors and bias during the match.
Federation president Hany Aburida lodged a complaint with FIFA, with the federation saying it wants an investigation into French referee Francois Letexier. The federation’s statement cited “serious refereeing mistakes” and “double standards” as the basis for its challenge.
Key incidents raised by Egypt
- Letexier disallowed a Mostafa Ziko strike after VAR intervened, with officials pointing to an earlier foul on Lisandro Martinez while Egypt were ahead 1-0.
- Minutes later, Ziko scored again to make it 2-0, putting Egypt on the verge of reaching the last eight for the first time.
- Controversy resurfaced in added time when Cristian Romero and Lionel Messi scored to bring Argentina level, with the champions ultimately completing the comeback.
- Egypt also argued that a penalty should have been awarded in the lead-up to Enzo Fernandez’s goal. The federation claims Alexis Mac Allister pulled Hamdy Fathy during the sequence.
In its complaint, Egypt demanded scrutiny not only of the match referee but of the full officiating set, explicitly including the video assistant referees. The federation said it believes footage was not reviewed properly and argued that the decisions denied Egypt correct outcomes, including a goal and a penalty it felt should have stood.
The statement further claimed Aburida “demanded the exclusion of the referee and the entire crew from the World Cup” after an investigation into the errors, which it described as proof of discrimination against the Egyptian national team.
Egypt’s position echoed comments made by coach Hossam Hassan immediately after the game.
Speaking to reporters, Hassan said the team felt it had been treated unfairly. “I do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today, we have suffered injustice,” he said, adding: “We haven’t seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play.”
Hassan also told BeIN Sports: “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.”
He added: “In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champions received support at every level.”
