Egypt calls FIFA and asks for removal from arbitration after World Cup crash

The Egyptian Football Federation filed a formal complaint with FIFA after the 3-2 defeat to Argentina, in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup. The entity is calling for an investigation into the actions of French referee François Letexier and assistants Cyril Mugnier and Mehdi Rahmouni, in addition to the removal of the trio from the rest of the competition.

According to the Spanish newspaper "AS", the request was sent by the president of the federation, Hany Abo Rida, on the grounds that refereeing errors directly influenced the result of the match, played this Tuesday (7). "We demand an investigation into some bids that were not marked in favor of Egypt", declared the leader.

"What I told the referee was just that this is unfair. I was just saying that this is unfair. I was saying that maybe he had a score in mind. Maybe he has something to hide. Whoever has something to hide, sometimes fails to hide what they are hiding," said Egypt coach Hossam Hassan. He also questioned the behavior of the referee who gave him a yellow card after making the official FIFA signal for cases of racism during the game. The match was not stopped after the coach's request. Coach Hossam Hassan, in protest, will not watch any more World Cup games.

Egyptian complaints focus on two moments. When the team was winning 1-0, Mostafa Zico went on to increase, but the goal was disallowed after a VAR review, which identified a foul on Lisandro Martínez at the origin of the play. The attacker scored again afterwards and made it 2-0.

Argentina reacted in the final stretch of the second half, tied and secured qualification with a goal from Enzo Fernández in stoppage time. In the move, the Egyptians pointed out two irregularities that would result in a penalty: Fathy would have been pulled by Mac Allister in the area and Salah would have been brought down by Julián Álvarez before the Argentine counterattack.

The elimination generated a strong reaction from the delegation. Scorer of the second Egyptian goal, Zico stated that the championship was "directed" and that the referee was "not fair".

With the turnaround, Argentina, which was trailing 2-0 until 34 minutes into the second half, advanced to the quarter-finals and remains in the fight for its fourth world championship and will face Switzerland in the quarter-finals.

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Source: CNN