Egypt coach accuses FIFA of bias towards Argentina after World Cup round of 16 loss

3 min readJul 8, 2026 06:30 AM IST

Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan argues with referee Francois Letexier, of France, during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Argentina and Egypt in Atlanta, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)

Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan said that his team “suffered injustice” in Atalanta, accusing the referee and FIFA of being biased in favour of defending champions Argentina after the African nation lost 3-2 to the defending champions in an epic round of 16 match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The Egyptian bench had erupted in fury after Argentina’s Enzo Fernandez scored what ultimately turned out to be the winning goal in stoppage time of the match.

The fracas that followed resulted in the referee showing a red card to a member of Hassan’s staff. “We deserved to earn this win, but we are leaving with pride because there was no fair play, no respect,” he told reporters after the match.

“There was no fair play in this match and I’m not happy with it. We have suffered injustice. FIFA raises the slogan ‘Fair Play’ but we don’t see it on the field.. Were it not for the errors, the result would have been different.”

The referee could be seen having a long conversation with Hassan after over the course of stoppage time after Fernandez’s goal. “What I told the referee was ‘this is unfair. 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.,” Hassan said about the incident.

“Anyway, I’m going home and won’t be watching any more games from the tournament,” he said. “What happened to us wasn’t fair. We should have had a penalty, a goal was disallowed, and I don’t know why it was disallowed.”

Hassan was referring to an appeal for a penalty kick that Egypt made when Julian Alvarez seemingly tripped their captain Mohamed Salah inside the Argentinian box. Egypt also had a second goal disallowed at around the hour mark in the match due to a foul that was made on Arentina centre back Lisandro Martinez at the start of their counter-attack. Mostafa Ziko was the scorer and he went on to score Egypt’s second goal of the day anyhow just a few minutes later. It meant that Egypt were leading Argentina 2-0 with just over 20 minutes of regular time left.

However, Argentina then pulled off an extraordinary comeback with Lionel Messi’s cross finding Cristian Romero who headed the ball in to halve Egypt’s lead. Messi himself then slammed in the equaliser before Fernandez scored the winner in the dying minutes of the match.

© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd