The Pharaoh's were leading 2-0 for the first 79 minutes of the game in an intense match which sparked debate over several refereeing decisions.
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan claims his side was “cheated” out of a place in the World Cup quarter-finals after Argentina staged a stunning late comeback from two goals down to win 3-2. Picture: AFP
The Egyptian Football Federation has lodged a complaint with the world football authority, FIFA, following their national side’s controversial World Cup knockout clash with Argentina.
Egypt’s World Cup campaign ended in the Round of 16 after they lost 3-2 to the defending champions in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Complaint
The Pharaohs led 2-0 for the first 79 minutes of the intense match, but were unhappy with the standard of refereeing.
“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
The Federation said it has asked for the officiating team that handled their last 16 loss to Argentina to be thrown out of the World Cup.
Lead evaporated
The EFA’s statement echoed remarks by Egypt coach Hossam Hassan immediately after the game, according to AFP.
“I’m saying we deserve to win, I don’t want to say hard luck to us. No, we went out with honour on our part. But the result was far from the fair play that FIFA talks about. There was no respect. No respect and no fair play today.
“We had a penalty not given. The referee, not even the VAR, even tried to look at it. We had a goal, the second goal. It was two-nil, and it was disallowed in a strange way. The VAR cancelled it, but there was no VAR when we needed it.
“VAR was there to disallow our goal and not theirs. Life is still, and the world is still not fair,” said Hassan.
Messi
Hassan told BeIN: “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.
“In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champions received support at every level.”
Goals
On Tuesday evening, Letexes ruled out a Mostafa Ziko goal when they were leading 1-0 after VAR intervened to spot a foul on Lisandro Martinez much earlier in the move.
A few minutes later, Ziko put Egypt 2-0 up and on the brink of a place in the last eight for the first time, but there was further controversy in added time after Cristian Romero and Lionel Messi had brought the champions level.
In the build-up to Argentina’s winner, scored by Enzo Fernandez, Egypt believed they should have instead been awarded a penalty for a pull by Alexis Mac Allister on Hamdy Fathy.
