Members of the Egyptian squad slammed the officiating in their loss to Argentina, accusing the referees of bias toward the Argentine side.What happened: Egyptian midfielder Mostafa Zico told a reporter after the match that the game was not fair.“No fair. No fair. Referee no fair,” he said in English, before describing the game as an “injustice” in Arabic.🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING - MOSTAFA ZIKO: 🗣 "The referee is unfair, God is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs. He's wasting the effort of an entire nation.""The cup is being given to Argentina." pic.twitter.com/Um7MJkevpU— Salah Updates #WorldCup (@SalahUpdates) July 7, 2026
“Congratulations. The World Cup is for Argentina,” he added, implying that officials wanted the defending champions to win.Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan accused FIFA of wanting to keep Argentine's star player Lionel Messi in the tournament for “marketing” purposes and called the match “rigged” in remarks to reporters.“I do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today; we have suffered injustice,” he said.Hassan struck a calmer tone in a statement on X after the match, saying, “Our development will not stop here, and we have many big goals ahead of us.”The coach is known for being outspoken and called on FIFA to use the sport’s “soft power” to help the Palestinians on Monday.FIFA has taken action against teams for criticizing officiating in the past. It banned and fined Indonesia’s coach in 2012 for suggesting that referees were bribed.The calls triggered outrage on Egyptian and Arab social media. Egyptian commentator Wael al-Emam accused FIFA head Gianni Infantino of wanting Argentina to win.إنفانتينو بعد ضياع ميسي لضربة الجزاء 🤔 pic.twitter.com/GJHlZHJlsX— Wael Al-Emam / وائل الإمام (@wael_alemam) July 7, 2026
