* We had the right to win and I don’t want to say ‘hard luck’ to us — no, we leave with honour, but the final result is a far cry from the ‘fair play’ that FIFA talks about
* Maybe it’s a marketing thing; maybe they want to keep the reigning World Cup champions to stay in the competition — they want to keep him in the competition
Maravi Express
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan — along with his players and several other pundits — have launch scathing attack at FIFA for “unjust” officiation following the Pharaohs’ exit from the FIFA World Cup™ 2026 Round of 16.
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Egyptians accused French referee Francois Letexier of bias and accused him of making inconsistent calls throughout the match as Argentina scored three goals in the last 14 minutes to-wipe-out-Egypt’s-two-goal-lead-on-Tuesday-night.
Letexier chalked off a Mostafa Zico goal after a VAR review showed a contentious foul on Lisandro Martinez in the build-up, but refused to review a similar foul committed against Mohammed Salah inside the Argentina area that came right before the world champions’ game-winning third goal in the 93rd minute.
The two fouls, on Martinez and Salah
Mohamed Salah remonstrates with referee Francois Letexier, after Argentina’s decisive goal
“We had the right to win and I don’t want to say ‘hard luck’ to us — no, we leave with honour, but the final result is a far cry from the ‘fair play’ that FIFA talks about. And far from the respect. So, no respect, and no fair play today,” said Hassan during his post-match press conference.
“My personal protest is that I won’t watch the World Cup anymore when I get home.”
In his interview with beIN Sports, Hassan listed various questionable decisions made by the referee, saying he “wasn’t fair”.
“Maybe it’s a marketing thing,” the coach added. “Maybe they want to keep the reigning World Cup champions to stay in the competition; they want to keep Lionel Messi in the competition.”
Egypt took an early lead through Yasser Ibrahim and thought they had doubled their advantage early in the second half, only for Mostafa Ziko’s goal to be disallowed for a foul by Marwan Attia in the buildup.
Ziko made it 2-0 soon after before Cristian Romero pulled one back for Argentina and Messi equalised, in the process scoring his eighth goal of the tournament and 21st in the FIFA World Cup™.
On referee Letexier, coach Hassan revealed that they had objected to his selection before the game — but the former striker reserved most of his ire for FIFA, which he accused of wanting to keep the reigning champions in the competition at all costs. “It’s all about money,” he insisted.
“In football, many things happen off the pitch because of interests. What happened was unfair. Egypt deserved to qualify. We were the better team.”
Hassan, who remains Egypt’s leading scorer, one goal ahead of Mohamed Salah, added: “Why isn’t there any fairness in sport? I do not want to try to put it nicely here with beautiful wording.
“We have been treated unfairly today. We have suffered injustice. It is my own way of speaking up and standing up. I am not going to watch another match in this tournament.”
A tearful Ziko, who scored Egypt’s second goal, also accused the officials of favouring their opponents: “After we made it 2-0, everything went against us. I don’t know why this second goal was disallowed.
“The referee is not fair. He is unjust; it’s just blatant injustice. He’s throwing away the hard work of an entire nation.
“From the start of the match, he was coming at us, like it’s unacceptable for us to be beating Argentina 2-0. The tournament is rigged.”—Reporting by AFP & The National News; editing by Maravi Express
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Knockout stages results
Round of 32
* South Africa 0-1 Canada
* Jordan 1-3 Argentina
* Brazil 2-1 Japan
* Germany 1(3)-1(4) Paraguay
* Netherlands 1(2)-1(3) Morocco
* Côte d’Ivoire 1-2 Norway
* France 3-0 Sweden
* Mexico 2-0 Ecuador
* England 1-2 DR Congo
* Belgium 3-2 Senegal
* USA 2-0 Bosnia & Herzegovina
* Spain 3-0 Austria
* Portugal 2-1 Croatia
* Switzerland 2-0 Algeria
* Australia 1(2)-1(4) Egypt
* Argentina 3-2 Cape Verde
* Colombia 1-0 Ghana
Round of 16
* Canada 0-3 Morocco
* Paraguay 0-1 France
* Brazil 1-2 Norway
* Mexico 2-3 England
* Portugal 0-1 Spain
* USA 1-4 Belgium
* Argentina 3-2 Egypt
* Switzerland 0(4)-0(3) Colombia
Quarterfinals
Thursday, July 9
* Morocco v France
* Belgium v Spain
Friday, July 10
* Norway v England
* Argentina v Switzerland
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