Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan has launched a scathing attack on FIFA and the match officials following his side’s dramatic 3-2 defeat to Argentina in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Round of 16, claiming the defending champions were favoured to keep captain Lionel Messi in the tournament.
Reigning world champions Argentina fought back from down 2-0 to win the game following a stunning late intervention by Messi, who created one goal and scored another.
Egypt were left furious after a goal was ruled out following a VAR review, while officials declined to review an apparent foul by Alexis Mac Allister in the buildup to Enzo Fernández’s stoppage-time winner.
They believe Mohamed Salah was fouled by Alexis Mac Allister in the box before Fernández scored at the other end.
VAR decided not to review the incident, and pundits have pointed out that the challenge on Salah was not too dissimilar from the foul on Lisandro Martinez, which resulted in Egypt’s disallowed goal.
After the match, head coach Hossam Hassan accused FIFA of favouring Argentina and Lionel Messi.
“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,” Hassan told reporters. “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion 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 champion received support at every level.”
The referee for the match was France’s François Letexier, whom Hassan said his team had objected to ahead of the showdown. The coach was further upset that the video assistant referee didn’t feel a need for Letexier to review the apparent Mac Allister foul.
“There seem to be pressures from the Argentina side on this outcome,” he said. “We were objecting to the selection of the referee because of the French situation [Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup final], but everybody has to suffer at some point, and we suffered.
“We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out [an alleged foul on Mo Salah]. It was not even checked by the VAR, and our second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.
“I want to put it in beautiful words and say, ‘Hard luck,’ but we have been treated unfairly, and it has been an injustice,” he said.
Hassan was involved in a verbal confrontation with Letexier at the end of the game, and he said he accused the official of “having something to hide.”
“What I told the referee was, ‘This is unfair,'” Hassan said. “I said maybe he is carrying a scar or has something to hide.
“If somebody is trying to hide something, they often fail to hide it.”
Egypt forward Mostafa Zico said it was difficult to watch the match slip away.
“Hard luck. The match was in our hands and slipped away at the last moment,” he said. “Strange things happened on the pitch.
“We were hard done by [the referee] today, and everyone saw that. I won’t talk about something like this. We were winning 2-0. After the 2-0 result, everything went against us and worked against us. I don’t even know why the second goal was disallowed; I don’t see any reason for it. But we must look for a solution so that a second goal doesn’t come. He wanted to disallow the third one too, but thank God, God didn’t grant him success.”
