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Egypt cry conspiracy after World Cup exit, accuse referee of favouring Argentina: 'They wanted Lionel Messi to stay'
Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan and star forward Mostafa Ziko accused the match officials of favouring Argentina.
Egypt came within touching distance of producing the biggest upset of the FIFA World Cup 2026 before watching their dream unravel in heartbreaking fashion.
The African side stunned Argentina by taking a 1-0 lead into half-time. They then thought they had doubled their advantage, only for the goal to be ruled out after a VAR review. Egypt did restore their two-goal cushion moments later with another strike that stood, leaving the defending champions on the brink. But Argentina mounted a dramatic comeback, scoring three goals in the final 13 minutes to seal a 3-2 victory in a pulsating Round-of-16 clash in Atlanta and book a quarter-final against Colombia or Switzerland next Saturday.
The aftermath, however, was dominated by Egypt's fury at the officiating.
Head coach Hossam Hassan and star forward Mostafa Ziko accused the match officials of favouring Argentina, alleging after the game that the tournament had been "directed towards Argentina and Lionel Messi."
Hassan claimed Egypt were wrongly denied a second goal following a VAR intervention when they led 1-0. He also argued that his side should have been awarded a penalty in stoppage time, moments before Enzo Fernandez scored Argentina's winner.
The Egypt coach even declared that he would "never watch the World Cup again because there's no justice in this competition."
A furious Hassan, directing his criticism at referee François Letexier and Argentina's players, said in the post-match press conference: "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 reviewed by VAR. A second goal was, remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.
"There seems to have been pressure from the Argentinian side on the referee that has brought about this outcome.
"Life is unfair. The world is unfair. But why isn't there any fairness in sport? I'm not convinced by this outcome or by the way things unfolded in this match."
Hassan also criticised the scheduling of the fixture.
"Whoever schedules these matches is someone who has never played football. You never schedule a football match at 12 noon," he said.
Speaking later to beIN Sports, via France 24, Hassan went even further.
"Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition? Perhaps they wanted Lionel Messi to stay in the running? In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champions benefited from support at every level.
"I told the referee that what was happening wasn't fair. It's an undeserved victory for Argentina. Once I'm back home, I'll never watch the World Cup again because there's no justice in this competition."
Egypt goalscorer Mostafa Ziko echoed those sentiments in an interview with TSN, alleging bias towards Argentina.
"It was not fair from the referee. It was really not fair. That was very clear. He wasted all of our efforts with his decisions. We were leading 2-0 and we could do nothing. It's all up to God.
"We are so sorry to the people of Egypt. We wanted to make you all happy. It was not in the cards. It was the referee. The cup is directed towards Argentina."
Despite the controversial ending, Egypt leave North America having enjoyed the finest World Cup campaign in their history. Playing in only their fourth World Cup finals, they reached the knockout stage for just the second time after first doing so in 1934. They also recorded their first-ever knockout victory by beating Australia on penalties in the Round of 32, making this their deepest run at the tournament.
