Furious Egyptians rant World Cup is ‘RIGGED’ as manager claims FIFA ‘wanted Lionel Messi to stay in the tournament’ after controversial VAR decisions in dramatic defeat

Egypt manager Hossam Hassan has angrily accused FIFA of rigging the World Cup after a series of controversial refereeing decisions went his way during Argentina’s dramatic late comeback in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Trailing 2-0 with 12 minutes and stoppage time remaining, Argentina looked destined to exit the tournament before late goals from Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernandez resulted in a remarkable 3-2 comeback victory.

When Fernandez’s match-winning header hit the net in the 93rd minute, chaos broke out on the touchline as Egypt’s angry staff protested to referee Francois Letexier, resulting in goalkeeping coach Saafan El-Sagheer being shown a red card and coach Hassan being removed from the conflict with the referee.

The Pharaohs were very angry that the referee and VAR did not give a penalty to Egypt because Mohamed Salah fell to the ground in the penalty area, breaking Julian Alvarez’s foot.

Early in the second half, Egypt had a goal disallowed by VAR due to a foul committed during the build-up. A series of decisions throughout the match went in favor of Argentina, who advanced to the quarter-finals to defend their North American title.

After the match, Hassan could not hide his anger and accused world football’s governing body, FIFA, of rigging the tournament so that Messi, the greatest player of all time, could remain in the tournament for ‘marketing reasons’.

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An Egyptian coach was sent off after the bench reacted angrily to Enzo Fernandez’s winning goal for Argentina and were clearly upset by the number of decisions taken against them.

“We were better but football isn’t fair,” the heartbroken coach said in his post-match interview.

‘It could be a marketing thing, they might want to have a World Cup with the winner of the last World Cup, they might want Messi to be present (in the tournament).

‘I thank my players very much. To all Egyptians, Arabs, Africans, you can work hard, that’s what you have to do, but sometimes there are other factors that push you to struggle.

‘I wish we could have been happier with the defeat, but with a serious defeat like today, I tell them (my players) to be sad. I wish we could be happier. Thank God for everything but football is different from what happens in the stadium when we play against world champions.

‘There is support for the world champions from every direction. Support and marketing.’

He later added: ‘Why is there no justice in sport? In football? I don’t want to try to put it nicely here with nice words. We were treated unfairly today. ‘We have been treated unfairly.’

Hassan claimed that the result was influenced by ‘internal’ and ‘external’ factors and that Egypt objected to Letexier’s selection as referee.

Egypt were furious at the disallowance of a goal while leading 1–0 during the match, and later showed similar expressions of anger and disbelief after Salah was penalized for a soft foul; otherwise he would attack the goal for a one-on-one opportunity.

At the end of the game, when the touchline erupted following Fernandez’s winner, Hassan made a gesture typically used to draw the referee’s attention to an accusation of racism, raising his hands in the air in an X shape.

It is unclear whether Hassan was claiming that a specific incident had occurred or whether he was protesting injustice and questionable decisions made in Argentina’s favor more generally.

Lionel Messi inspired Argentina to a dramatic late comeback in the World Cup winners’ 3-2 win

Egypt’s star man Mohammed Salah was in a miserable state when he returned to his hotel in Egypt

Widely regarded as the greatest player to ever grace the game and lead Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar in 2022, Messi is spending the final years of his glittering career in the United States as a veteran of David Beckham’s Inter Miami team.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who sparked controversy over the integrity of the World Cup after his organization agreed to suspend US forward Folarin Balogun’s red card following a phone call with Donald Trump, has been targeted during his tenure with accusations of bias from fans over Argentina’s World Cup success.

The Swiss football chief, who struck up a friendship with Trump after awarding the President FIFA’s inaugural peace prize in 2025, raised eyebrows as he joyfully congratulated Argentina on their narrow last-32 victory over Cape Verde and quickly backtracked, saying he was neutral.

Ahead of Switzerland’s round-of-16 clash with Colombia in Vancouver, Infantino held up the Egyptian flag in a possible attempt to debunk accusations of favoritism towards Argentina following their late comeback.

It is worth noting that despite allegations on the internet, no evidence has emerged to support the allegations, corruption or match manipulation against FIFA or Infantino.

The first major decision made by referee Letexier during Egypt’s defeat was to award a penalty to Argentina in the first half; But the Pharaohs had few complaints about Messi’s missed penalty kick.

In the exciting match in the last 16 rounds of the World Cup, Yaser Ibrahim put Egypt ahead after just 15 minutes, while Mostafa Ziko doubled their advantage in the middle of the second half.

Ziko added fuel to the fire after the match by describing Letexier as an ‘unfair’ referee.

‘The referee is not fair,’ he said through tears in his post-match interview. ‘Unfair, unfair referee. He is an unfair person. This is such obvious injustice.

‘It wastes the labor of an entire nation. From the beginning of the match, we were winning 2-0 against Argentina. But the cup has already been given.’

Gianni Infantino raises Egyptian flag in Vancouver shortly after the country’s elimination

Ziko, who scored Egypt’s second goal, congratulated Argentina for winning the World Cup and claimed that the team was favored by “unfair” referees.

‘I apologize to the Egyptian fans. We wanted to make them happy today. We didn’t know how to do this. But by God, this is out of our hands; It is in the hands of the referee. The cup has already been determined.

‘I congratulate Argentina on the World Cup. Congratulations. You don’t need anything else.”

Shortly after the match in Atlanta, FIFA confirmed that all officials officiating in France’s quarter-final against Morocco would be Argentine; For the first time in this tournament, all match referees will be from the same country, leading to further allegations of nepotism.

Some fans noted after Egypt’s defeat that Argentina had eight penalties in the last 12 World Cup matches and that the penalty shoot-out was crucial for victory in Qatar in 2022.

Argentina will face either Switzerland or Colombia in the World Cup quarter-finals if Harry Kane and Co beat Erling Haaland’s Norway on Saturday, before a potential showdown with England in the semi-finals.

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