Egypt wants referee punished, banned after defeat to Agentina

Egypt’s football federation has submitted a petition to FIFA asking for the officiating team that handled the Pharaohs’ 3-2 last-16 defeat to Argentina to be expelled from the World Cup.

A statement from the federation on Wednesday stated that “Hany Aburida, President of the Egyptian Football Federation, filed a complaint with FIFA, demanding an investigation into French referee Francois Letexier… following serious refereeing errors committed by the officiating team and double standards, which led to the Egyptian team losing the match and leaving the World Cup.”

On Tuesday evening, Letexes ruled out Mostafa Ziko’s goal when they led 1-0 after VAR intervened to spot a foul on Lisandro Martinez deep into the move.

Minutes later, Ziko put Egypt 2-0 up and within reach of a place in the last eight for the first time, but there was further controversy in stoppage time, after Cristian Romero and Lionel Messi brought the champions level.

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Ahead of Argentina’s winning goal scored by Enzo Fernandez, Egypt believed they should have been awarded a penalty due to Alexis Mac Allister’s draw against Hamdy Fathy.

“Aburida demanded an investigation of the entire refereeing team, including the video technology referee, for flagrant errors and insisted on not reviewing some of the footage that we believed was favorable to the Egyptian national team, and we saw in it the Pharaoh’s right to get the correct goal and penalty,” the Egyptian statement said.

He added that the president also “demanded the exclusion of the referee and the entire crew from the World Cup after investigating these mistakes and proving crimes of discrimination against the Egyptian national team”.

This statement is in line with the statement made by Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan shortly after the match.

“I don’t want to explain it well and talk about bad luck. We have been cheated unfairly today, we have suffered injustice,” Hassan told reporters.

“We haven’t seen respect or fair play. There hasn’t been any respect or fair play.”