Egypt asks FIFA to remove World Cup officials after Argentina defeat

ATLANTA, United States (AFP) — Egypt’s football governing body said Wednesday that it wants the officials who handled the Pharaohs’ 2-3 last-16 World Cup loss to Argentina barred from the tournament.

A federation statement said Egyptian Football Federation president Hany Aburida had submitted a complaint to FIFA calling for an inquiry into French referee Francois Letexier, citing what it described as serious errors by the officiating team and uneven standards.

On Tuesday, Letexier disallowed a Mostafa Ziko strike while Egypt led 1-0 after a VAR review flagged a foul on Lisandro Martinez earlier in the sequence. Ziko soon made it 2-0, leaving Egypt close to a first-ever quarter-final berth, before Cristian Romero and Lionel Messi drew the holders level. Egypt contend that, in the lead-up to Enzo Fernandez’s winning goal for Argentina, Alexis Mac Allister’s pull on Hamdy Fathy should have brought a penalty.

“Aburida demanded the investigation of the entire team of referees, including the video technology referees, because of the blatant errors and insisting on not reviewing some of the footage that we believe are in favour of the Egyptian national team, and we see in it the Pharaohs’ right to a correct goal and a penalty,” the federation said. It further stated that the president had “demanded the exclusion of the referee and the entire crew from the World Cup after investigating these mistakes and proving the crime of discrimination against the Egyptian national team”.

Those claims mirrored comments from Egypt coach Hossam Hassan right after the match. “I do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today, we have suffered injustice,” Hassan told reporters. “We haven’t seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play.”

Speaking to BeIN Sports, Hassan said: “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions 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 champions received support at every level.”