Egypt lodge formal complaint over refereeing decisions in defeat to Argentina

ATLANTA: The Egyptian Football Association on Wednesday announced that it demanded an investigation into the refereeing decisions during the Pharaohs' gut-wrenching 3-2 defeat at the hands of defending champions Argentina in the Last 16 match of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

According to the federation, its president Hany Aburida filed a complaint with FIFA and demanded an investigation into French referee Francois Letexier over serious mistakes, adding that the "double standards" directly affected the outcome of the aforementioned fixture.

"Hany Aburida, President of the Egyptian Football Federation, filed a complaint with FIFA, demanding an investigation into the French referee Francois Letexier... after the serious refereeing mistakes committed by the team of referees and double standards, which caused the Egypt team to lose the match and leave the World Cup," said a statement from the federation.

"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 statement added.

The Pharaohs were dictating the course of the play against the holders until the 79th minute as they were leading 2-0, courtesy of goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Ziko, which came in the 15th and 69th minutes, respectively.

But the reigning champions scripted an astounding comeback by netting three goals in the span of just 13 minutes, through Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernandez, respectively.

The African side, however, were frustrated with a goal, which had initially put them up 2-0, but was soon disallowed following a VAR review. Their frustration grew after star striker Mohamed Salah was fouled in the penalty box late in stoppage time, which, however, was not reviewed.

Tension escalated further when Egypt coach Hossam Hassan was shown a yellow card by Letexier for objecting to the lack of a VAR review.

Following the conclusion of the tense fixture, Hassan openly criticised the refereeing decisions and claimed that Egypt were "cheated and suffered injustice".

"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 journalists.

"We haven't seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play."