Egypt’s football governing body is crying foul after the Pharoahs’ controversial exit from the World Cup following a pulsating 3-2 loss to Lionel Messi’s Argentina on Tuesday.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Egyptian Football Association confirmed that it has filed a formal complaints to FIFA about what it described as unfair refereeing decisions by French referee Francois Letexier during the last-16 tie.
The EFA accused Letexier of double standards after key decisions of the match favoured three-time World Cp winners Argentina and determined the outcome of the match in Atlanta.
The Egyptian football officials are calling on FIFA to expel from the tournament the team of referees including the Video Assistant Referees for the match.
“Hany Abou Rida, 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 Egyptian FA said in its statement.
While leading 1-0 in the second half, Egypt had a Mostafa Zico goal for 2-0 disallowed after the video assistant referee (VAR) adjudged that midfielder Marwan Attia had committed a foul on Lisandro Martinez, by stepping on the defender’s foot in the buildup to the goal 17 seconds earlier.
However, Egypt felt aggrieved after Argentina benefitted from the referee’s decision for waving away an apparent foul on Mohamed Salah in the Argentina penalty area, seconds before the winner which dumped Egypt out of the competition.
The EFA criticised the referees for not reviewing the footage about the buildup to Argentina’s winner and described these purported mistakes as ”discrimination against the Egyptian national team”.
Egypt had gone two-nil up but Messi provided the assist for Argentina’s first before smashing an equaliser seven minutes from regulation time before Enzo Fernandez headed the stoppage-time winner.
Pharoahs coach Hossam Hassan described the quality of refereeing as a disgrace and accused FIFA of a possible ploy to keep Argentina in the World Cup, a claim supported by scorer Zico who said ”the injustice was clear” from the start of the match.
WN/as/APA