Egypt's national team was left furious after a narrow 3-2 round-of-16 defeat to Argentina at the World Cup, with coach Hossam Hassan accusing the referee of bias. "Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the race," Hassan told BeIN Sports.

Egypt led 2-0 until the 79th minute, but Argentina staged a comeback with goals from Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi, and Enzo Fernandez. The Egyptians were particularly incensed by referee Francois Letexier's decision to disallow a goal by Mostafa Ziko in the 58th minute after a VAR review, which Hassan called unjustified.

Another flashpoint came when Egypt claimed a penalty for a shirt pull by Alexis Mac Allister on Hamdy Fathy, which went unpunished. "A penalty for us wasn't even checked by VAR," Hassan complained. Former Bundesliga referee Patrick Ittrich agreed it should have been a penalty.

The Egyptian Football Association lodged an official complaint with FIFA, with president Hany Abo Rida accusing Letexier of "serious errors" and demanding the entire officiating team be removed from the tournament. "Double standards were applied, resulting in Egypt's loss and elimination," he said.

The controversy adds to FIFA's credibility issues, following the suspension of a red card for US striker Folarin Balogun after a phone call from US President Donald Trump. Additionally, the appointment of an all-Argentine officiating team for the France-Morocco quarterfinal has raised eyebrows.

Hassan lamented the lack of fairness: "We deserved the win, but we were shown no respect and no fair play. Why is there no fairness in football? We were treated unfairly."

Source: www.dw.com