Egypt coach Hossam Hassan has launched a scathing attack on refereeing decisions following his side’s dramatic exit from the World Cup 2026 on Tuesday (July 7).

Argentina fought back from 2-0 down to defeat Egypt 3-2 in a highly contentious round-of-16 match played in Atlanta on Tuesday. The victory sends the defending champions into a quarter-final clash against either Colombia or Switzerland next Saturday.

Hassan, however, was left furious by several key moments that he believes cost his team dearly. He claimed Egypt were wrongly denied a second goal when leading 1-0 after a VAR review, and insisted his players should have been awarded a penalty in stoppage time just before Enzo Fernandez netted Argentina’s winning goal.

In his post-match news conference, the Egypt manager pointed the finger at French referee Francois Letexier and the Argentina players, saying, “We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out and a second (incident) that should have been checked for a penalty for us was not even checked by the VAR. A second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.”

“There seems to have been pressure on the Argentinian side on the referee that has brought about this outcome,” he said.

The Egypt coach then dropped a bombshell, claiming that the World Cup has been compromised to help Argentina, who are the defending Champions.

“Life is unfair. The world is unfair. OK, but why isn’t there any fairness in sports? I’m not convinced by this outcome and by the way things unfolded in this match. 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 directed towards Argentina,” he added.

“Maybe it’s a matter of marketing. Maybe they[FIFA] wanted Messi to exist, they wanted the Champions of last World Cup exist,” Hassan continued in his rant.

Does the Egypt Coach Make Sense?

Well, to be honest, he does. There were multiple instances where the decisions went against Egypt, and VAR didn’t intervene when it was supposed to.

The foul which was given for the Egypt goal was at the Egypt end, and that nowhere played a direct part in the goal, as Argentina players didn’t concede from the player who allegedly committed the foul, and had chances to clear their lines.

On the other end, there were a clear trip on Mohamed Salah in the Argentina box before Enzo Fernandez scored the winner, but VAR didn’t even bother to check. There were calls for a foul on another player in the box as well, but it was not checked. Argentina made a terrific heist of Egypt as Lionel Messi was mesmerizing on the night, but there shall always be arguments over the decisions, and the African team’s disgruntlement is not way out of line.