World Cup 2026: Egypt Files An Official Complaint Against Referee With FIFA

The Egyptian Football federation on Wednesday said it had asked for the officiating team who handled the Pharaohs loss 3-2 in the last-16 match against South American giants, Argentina to be sacked from the World Cup.

The President of the Egyptian Football Federation, Hany Aburida, filed a complaint with FIFA and demanded an investigation into the French referee, Francois Letexier after a serious refereeing mistake committed by the team of referees and double standards that caused the Egypt team to bow out of the tournament, a statement from the Federation said.

On Tuesday evening, Letexeier ruled out the goal scored by Mostafa Ziko when they were leading the game 1-0 after VAR intervened to spot a foul on Lisandro Martinez much earlier in the move. A few later after this, Ziko put Egypt into double lead and they went up 2-0 and were on the brink of sealing their palace in the last eight of the World Cup for the first time.

However, there was further controversy in the added time, after Christian Romero and Lionel Messi scored goals in quick succession for Argentina and brought the defending champions to level with Egypt. In the build up to Argentina’s winner scored by Enzo Fernandez, Egypt believed they should have been awarded a penalty for a pull by Alexis Mac Allister on Hamdy Fathy.

“Aburida demanded the investigation of the full team of referees including the video technology referees because of the blatant errors and insisting on not reviewing some of the footage that we believe are in favour of the Egyptian team, and we see in it the Pharaohs’ right to a correct goal and a penalty,” said the Egyptian statement.

It also added that the president has “demanded the exclusion of the referee and the whole crew from the World Cup after investigating these mistakes and proving the crime of discrimination against the Egyptian national team.”