The Egyptian Football Federation (EFA) has lodged a formal complaint with FIFA, calling for an investigation into the officiating team that handled Egypt’s controversial 3-2 Round of 16 defeat to Argentina at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
In a statement, EFA President Hany Aburida accused French referee François Letexier and the VAR team of making “serious refereeing mistakes” and applying double standards that allegedly influenced the outcome of the match.
The federation argued that Egypt was wrongly denied a legitimate goal after VAR ruled out an early strike by Mostafa Ziko for a foul earlier in the build-up. It also claimed the team should have been awarded a penalty in the closing stages after Hamdy Fathy was allegedly pulled by Argentina’s Alexis Mac Allister before Enzo Fernández scored the winning goal.
Aburida urged FIFA to investigate the entire officiating crew, including the VAR officials, and called for their removal from the remainder of the tournament if the allegations are upheld.
The complaint follows strong criticism from Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan, who described the result as “unfair” and alleged that his team had been denied justice by the match officials.
Argentina came from two goals down to defeat Egypt 3-2, with goals from Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernández securing the defending champions a place in the quarter-finals.
