The Egyptian Football Federation has lodged an official complaint with FIFA, calling for the removal of the refereeing team that officiated the Pharaohs’ dramatic 3-2 defeat to Argentina in the Round of 16 of the FIFA World Cup.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the federation accused French referee Francois Letexier and his officiating crew of making decisive errors that it believes denied Egypt a place in the quarter-finals.
“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,” the federation said.
One of the major incidents came when Mostafa Ziko had a goal disallowed after VAR intervened, ruling that Lisandro Martinez had been fouled earlier in the attacking move while Egypt were leading 1-0.
Ziko later restored Egypt’s momentum by scoring to make it 2-0, putting the North Africans on course for a historic first-ever World Cup quarter-final appearance.
However, Argentina fought back through Cristian Romero and Lionel Messi to level the contest before Enzo Fernandez netted the winner.
Egypt insist the decisive goal should never have stood, arguing that Hamdy Fathy was fouled by Alexis Mac Allister in the build-up and should have been awarded a penalty.
“Aburida demanded the investigation of the entire team of referees, including the video technology referees, because of the blatant errors and insisting on not reviewing some of the footage that we believe are in favour of the Egyptian national team, and we see in it the Pharaohs’ right to a correct goal and a penalty,” the statement added.
The federation further urged FIFA to take disciplinary action against the officials.
It added that the president had also “demanded the exclusion of the referee and the entire crew from the World Cup after investigating these mistakes and proving the crime of discrimination against the Egyptian national team”.
Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan also expressed his frustration after the match, insisting his side had been unfairly treated.
“I do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today, we have suffered injustice,” Hassan told journalists.
“We haven’t seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play.”
Speaking to BeIN Sports, Hassan suggested external influences may have favoured the defending champions.
“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.”
