Egypt coach Hossam Hassan has launched a scathing attack on refereeing decisions following his side's dramatic exit from the World Cup 2026 on Tuesday (July 7).
Argentina fought back from 2-0 down to defeat Egypt 3-2 in a highly contentious round-of-16 match played in Atlanta on Tuesday. The victory sends the defending champions into a quarter-final clash against either Colombia or Switzerland next Saturday.
Hassan, however, was left furious by several key moments that he believes cost his team dearly. He claimed Egypt were wrongly denied a second goal when leading 1-0 after a VAR review, and insisted his players should have been awarded a penalty in stoppage time just before Enzo Fernandez netted Argentina's winning goal.
In his post-match news
conference, the Egypt manager pointed the finger at French referee Francois Letexier and the Argentina players, saying, "We haven't seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out and a second (incident) that should have been checked for a penalty for us was not even checked by the VAR. A second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed. "
"There seems to have been pressure on the Argentinian side on the referee that has brought about this outcome," he said.
The Egypt coach then dropped a bombshell, claiming that the World Cup has been compromised to help Argentina, who are the defending Champions.
"Life is unfair. The world is unfair. OK, but why isn't there any fairness in sports? I'm not convinced by this outcome and by the way things unfolded in this match. The referee is unfair, God is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs. He's wasting the effort of an entire nation. The cup is directed towards Argentina," he added.
"Maybe it's a matter of marketing. Maybe they[FIFA] wanted Messi to exist, they wanted the Champions of last World Cup exist," Hassan continued in his rant.
Mostafa Zico blasts FIFA
Egyptian player Mostafa Zico, who scored the second goal, blamed the referee and said the World Cup is fixed.
"The referee was not fair, not fair. There was clear injustice. We did a good job in the early stage of the match and there has been unfairness from the start. 2-0 is not enough to win against Argentina. It is clear that this tournament is fixed," he said.
Does the Egypt Coach Make Sense?
Well, to be honest, he does. There were multiple instances in which decisions went against Egypt, and VAR didn't intervene when it should have.
The foul which was given for the Egypt goal was at the Egypt end, and that player did not play a direct part in the goal, as Argentina players didn't concede from the player who allegedly committed the foul, and had chances to clear their lines.
On the other end, there was a clear trip on Mohamed Salah in the Argentina box before Enzo Fernandez scored the winner, but VAR didn't even bother to check. There were calls for a foul on another player in the box as well by Alexis Mac Allister, but it was not checked. But when checking back the replay, the contact with Salah was not enough, hence the Argentine goal was rightly allowed. But it should have been the same for Egypt as well in the first instance.
There is no denying that the South American giants turned the tables out of nowhere. Messi was mesmerising and stunned Egyptians in a spell which completely changed the complexion. Argentina made a terrific heist of Egypt but there shall always be arguments over the decisions, and the African team's disgruntlement is not way out of line.
