Egypt files FIFA complaint as Argentina ‘rigged’ World Cup claims go viral • FRANCE 24 English

Here in the studio, good evening to you, Vedika.The Egyptian Football Association says it can't remain silent after being eliminated from the World Cup against Argentina.It was a sensational match, but it's brought up certain controversies.The Egyptians are calling for an investigation into what they describe as double standards in the refereeing in the game.Tell us more about this.

That's right, Mark.The Egyptian Football Association has filed a formal complaint against refereeing decisions in its World Cup last 16 defeat to Argentina.It's calling for FIFA to remove the referee, François Letixier, and the entire officiating team from the tournament.Now, let's just quickly recap this game as quickly and as concisely as we can.Now, Egypt appeared set to cause one of the biggest upsets of the entire tournament when they were leading defending champions Argentina 2 -0 with 11 minutes.minutes remaining before Argentina then came back with three late goals.

Now Egypt felt that they were mistreated after a VAR intervention disallowed Mustafa Zico's goal for a foul but VAR wasn't used to check what Egypt alleged was a foul against Mo Salah therefore denying Egypt a penalty seconds before Argentina's third and winning goal in stoppage time.So that is the issue and this is what coach Hossam Hassan has to say.He claims his side was cheated out of a quarterfinals place and that his squad is being victimised by a body that has favoured Lionel Messi and Argentina to advance.Now he says we have been cheated unfairly We have suffered injustice.Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition.Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.

In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects.The world champions, i .e.Argentina, have received support at every level.Now, Egypt's football association, let's go back to that complaint there.Well, it says that multiple decisions directly influenced the outcome of the game.

It called it blatant errors and insistingon not reviewing some of the footage.And Mark, it's alleged the crime of discrimination against the Egyptian national team.

There is such a thing as sour grapes when you lose, Vedika, we all know about that.But Thierry Henry no less pointed to a lack of... coherence in the way the game was refereed, those points that you were actually picking on there, so you're in good company in terms of questioning how that was done.Since Egypt's loss then, conspiracy theories that the World Cup's been fixed in Argentina's favour are now reaching, well, fever pitch.

That's right.It's not just the Egyptian team, its supporters and football pundits, as you mentioned, but fans all around the world are taking to social media to complain of unfair refereeing in this game.Many users online pointed to inconsistency in the refereeing decisions, saying that the referee failed to apply the same review for other suspected fouls that could have disallowed Argentinian goals.And they pointed out that if VAR was used frame by frame to rule out Egypt's goal, it could have been used the same way for Argentina as well.up hardArgentina has received zero bookings in that game against Algeria, against whom they committed 13 fouls to eight.

If we take a look at this table compiled by The Telegraph, it highlights how Argentina have received the second fewest bookings overall in this World Cup, despite making the fourth most fouls.So this has certainly not helped quell the theories of bias towards Argentina.Now, further fuel has been added to the fire after FIFA President Gianni Infantino stopped to talk to Argentinian television after the team's match with Cape Verde in the round of 32.Now, he congratulated the squad on their win and he said that he suffered with them, he suffered with Argentina during the match when Cape Verde were applying pressure onto the team.But he added at the end, but I am neutral.And this mark hasn't been taken well by football fans who accuse him of blatant favouritism towards Argentina.

I tipped Cape Verde before the tournament to do well.I tipped to qualify and everybody laughed at me.They nearly beat Argentina and some say they should have beaten Argentina.And more and more questions raised then about Gianni Infantino, his role, his influence and what exactly is going on behind the scenes.So these theories of favouritism continue into the next stage of the tournament too and a certain refereeing appointment.

That's right.FIFA has also been criticised for more perceived favouritism towards Argentina after it was announced that for Thursday's quarterfinal game between France and Morocco, it had appointed an all -Argentinian officiating team.We can see all those names here announced by FIFA.Now, this has been slammed by football fans around the world, given that France alongside Argentina are considered some of the favourites to win the title.And there is, of course, an intense rivalry between the pair on the pitch.Les Bleus, however, is Didier Deschamps.

He insists that the team are not stressed about this, that he's not concerned, although he did say that there are always decisions that can spark debate.But overall, we just have to deal with it, he says.