Following a heroic match against Argentina, the Pharaohs exit the World Cup amid outrage over referee bias

⚽ The curtain fell Tuesday evening on the Egyptian national team’s World Cup journey. After holding a 2-0 lead until the 80th minute, Egypt saw Argentina capitalize on its star power and a lenient refereeing crew to pull off a 3-2 comeback in the final minutes of the match. With this outcome, Argentina advances to face Switzerland in the quarterfinals, following the Swiss side’s penalty shootout triumph over Colombia after a scoreless draw through regular and extra time.

Despite the loss, the Pharaohs made history — Yasser Ibrahim opened the scoring for Egypt in the 15th minute, shortly before Mostafa Shobeir made a stunning penalty save against Lionel Messi. As the second half got underway, Mostafa Zico doubled the lead in the 67th minute — coming just moments after an earlier, well-deserved goal of his was disallowed when VAR pulled play back for a foul committed minutes before the ball hit the net.

Blatant double standards: Yesterday’s match bore witness to some of the most biased refereeing of the tournament so far, sparking a wave of outrage and fierce criticism from Egyptian and neutral fans alike.

French referee François Letexier turned a blind eye to numerous infractions by Argentine players, yet waved through soft fouls and freekicks for Argentina with clear favoritism, followed by a flurry of last-minute yellow cards dished out against the Egyptians. Several football pundits heavily criticized the lack of fairness, pointing out that the referee ignored a clear penalty on Mohamed Salah and allowed Argentina’s third goal to stand despite a foul in the buildup mirroring the one that disallowed Egypt’s second goal.

Complaint filed: The Egyptian Football Association (EFA), led by Hany Abo Rida, has submitted an official complaint to FIFA against the French official, his crew, and the VAR officials over the refereeing errors. The EFA is demanding their expulsion from the World Cup pending an investigation into the refereeing bias and confirmation of the crime of racism.

The elite eight are set

With the Round of 16 wrapped up, the quarterfinal matchups are locked in:

• France vs. Morocco — 11pm, Thursday;
• Spain vs. Belgium — 10pm, Friday;
• Norway vs. England — 12am, Saturday night;
• Argentina vs. Switzerland — 4am, Sunday.

**Don’t miss out on the fierce competition in the EnterpriseAM Fantasy World Cup — click on this link or use the code 2CUFGASD to join.