Egypt files complaint with FIFA, blames referee for World Cup elimination

Egypt have filed a formal complaint with FIFA following their World Cup defeat to Argentina, demanding the officials at the heart of the controversy be kicked out of the competition.

The defending world champions looked set for a shock Round of 16 exit in Atlanta on Tuesday before producing a stunning late comeback. Trailing 2-0 with just 11 minutes remaining, Argentina rallied through goals from Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernández to snatch a dramatic victory and book a quarter-final clash with Switzerland.

Their match against Egypt was marred by controversies.

The Pharaohs were denied a penalty moments before Julian Alvarez started the counter that led to Fernández’ late winner.

Alvarez tackled Mohamed Salah inside the penalty box, appearing to catch his foot before taking the ball. Immediately after, as the ball broke loose, Alexis Mac Allister appeared to pull Hamdi Fathy. VAR did not appear to check either incident, with Argentina scoring moments later.

Egypt had already seen a goal ruled out earlier in the game after Zico capped a wonderful counter-attack. A VAR check deemed Lisandro Martinez had been fouled in the build-up.

According to Argentina’s TYC Sports, the president of the Egyptian Football Association, Hany Abo Rida, has demanded a formal investigation into the refereeing decisions.

As part of his complaint, he has requested that the match official from Wednesday’s game, Francois Letexier, and his team be excluded from refereeing for the remainder of the competition.

Egypt are demanding an investigation into their disallowed goal and the two infringements that took place moments before Argentina’s third goal.

FIFA are yet to take any decision on Egypt’s request, with their coaching staff and players furiously accusing the officials and the competition of favouring the defending world champions.

‘The referee wasn’t good, he was unfair. His injustice was clear. He persecuted us from the start of the match. He doesn’t want us to win,’ said Zico, whose goal was chalked off before scoring again later in the second-half.

‘It was a rigged game. It wasn’t our fault. That referee… it seems like this match was rigged. We were winning 2-0, and he kept coming at us.

‘Congratulations to Argentina on another World Cup, it seems.’

Head coach Hossam Hassam also launched an extraordinary attack on match officials and FIFA, accusing them of going to extreme lengths to ‘to keep Messi’ in the competition.

‘We looked better than the reigning champions – better in everything –, but the result was influenced by internal factors on the pitch and external factors off it,’ he said.

‘Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.