Following their 3-2 World Cup defeat to Argentina, Egyptian players and coaches have voiced strong allegations of unfair officiating and suggested the match was "rigged." Head coach Hossam Hassan criticized the decisions, stating, "We haven’t seen respect or fair play." He specifically pointed to a disallowed goal for Egypt and a missed penalty review for his team.
"A penalty was ruled out, and a second [incident] that should have been checked for a penalty for us was not even checked by the VAR. A second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed," Hassan told reporters after the match. He further alleged that "external factors" may have influenced the outcome, possibly to keep star player Lionel Messi and Argentina in the competition.
"Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running," Hassan stated. "The world champion received support at every level." He expressed his dissatisfaction, saying, "I’m not convinced by this outcome and by the way things unfolded in this match."
Egyptian forward Mostafa Ziko echoed these sentiments, describing the referee's performance as detrimental to his team. "We were hard done by [the referee] today, and everyone saw that," Ziko said. "I don't even know why the second goal was disallowed, I don't see any reason for it." He concluded, "It was a rigged game. It wasn’t our fault. That referee… it seems like this match was rigged."
Egypt held a 1-0 lead and appeared to extend it to 2-0 before a VAR review determined a foul had occurred off the ball approximately 20 seconds earlier, leading to the disallowance. Another incident involved a potential penalty call for a foul on star player Mohamed Salah that was not reviewed by VAR. The coach suggested that if the second goal had stood, a 3-0 lead might have been possible.
Despite the Egyptian team's complaints, the article notes that external factors were not the primary variable. The Egyptian team conceded three goals in 25 minutes, allowing Argentina to mount a comeback. FIFA has not officially commented on the allegations.