While the Round of 16 match between Egypt and Argentina on Tuesday left many FIFA World Cup fans thrilled, one side was left furious by the result.
Egypt manager Hossam Hassan slammed FIFA and the match’s referees in his post-game press conference, saying that the entire tournament has been “rigged” to favour Lionel Messi’s squad.
Hossam cried foul after several controversial decision — both on the field and through VAR — went against his side in what would turn out to be a 3-2 win for Argentina.
Egypt had led the match 2-0 late in the second half, only for the defending champions to come back and score three goals from the 79th minute on to win the match and advance to the quarterfinals.
Why did Hassan say the match was rigged?
Hassan clearly didn’t hold back in his post-match comments and was aware there could be consequences.
“I will say what’s on my mind regardless of the consequence, this was clearly a rigged match and the whole world saw it,” he said. “And I want to say one more thing, if they want Argentina to win so bad, why call everyone to come and participate?”
Hassan, who was seen angrily confronting officials after Enzo Fernández’s go-ahead goal in the 93rd minute, added that Argentina had been favoured due to “marketing reasons.”
“We were better, but football is unfair,” Hassan said. “It could be a matter of marketing, they could want to make a World Cup with the champion of the last World Cup, they want Messi to exist (in the tournament).
“I thank my players very much. To all the Egyptians, the Arabs, the Africans, you can work hard, it’s what you have to do, but sometimes there are other factors that make you struggle.
“I wish we could be happier with the loss, but with a severe loss like today I say to (my players) ‘be upset.’
“We wish we could be happier. Thank God for everything but football is different from what happens in the stadium when we are playing against the world champions.
“There is support from all directions for the world champions. Support and marketing.”
What happened during the match?
To say that there were some controversial calls and non-calls — most of which favoured Argentina — would be putting it lightly.
On social media, several users put together compilations of the decisions that went against the North African nation — with more than four minutes of evidence from the 90-minute match.
What did Egypt’s players say?
Egypt’s players were furious after the match as well. Mostafa Ziko echoed the sentiment that the tournament is “rigged” and called the referees “unjust” several times.
“Referee, not fair,” he said during his post-match interview on the pitch. “Unjust, unjust referee. An unjust person. An injustice that is so clear.
“He’s wasting the effort of an entire nation. Since the beginning of the game, we were leaving the game winning 2-0 against Argentina. But the cup has already been given.”
Through tears, he added: “Congratulations to Argentina on the World Cup. The tournament was rigged, they didn’t need anything else.”
What did TSN say?
It wasn’t just aggrieved Egyptians who felt the Pharaohs were wronged during the match.
During TSN’s discussion about the call that ruled out an Egyptian goal in the 58th minute, the panel said that the foul “was too soft.”
“In real time, that does not look like a foul to me,” Steven Caldwell said. “No way … this should never have come back.”
Luke Wileman agreed, calling the foul “soft” and saying that the refs likely wouldn’t have called the foul if it were the other way around.
“Argentina were lucky to get away with it in the end,” Wileman said.
Was there racism involved?
In another controversial sight, Hassan made an ‘X’ gesture with his arms – something that has been incorporated during this summer’s tournament to draw attention to acts of racism.
The referee, however, did not approach Hassan about the issue and it was unclear if the manager was using the signal to alert officials towards an act of racism, or using the gesture out of protest over the controversial decisions on the pitch.