The federation confirmed on Wednesday that it had submitted a complaint to FIFA seeking an investigation into French referee François Letexier and the wider officiating team, including the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) officials.
According to a statement from the Egyptian federation, its president, Hany Aburida, filed the complaint over what it described as “serious refereeing mistakes” and “double standards” during the encounter, which ended Egypt’s hopes of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time.
“Hany Aburida, President of the Egyptian Football Federation, filed a complaint with FIFA, demanding an investigation into the French referee Francois Letexier… after the serious refereeing mistakes committed by the team of referees and double standards, which caused the Egypt team to lose the match and leave the World Cup,” the statement read.
The controversy centred around several key decisions during the match. With Egypt leading 1-0, Mostafa Ziko appeared to have doubled the advantage, but the goal was cancelled after VAR intervention identified an earlier foul on Argentina defender Lisandro Martinez during the build-up.
Although Ziko later scored a legitimate second goal to put Egypt 2-0 ahead and seemingly close to a historic quarter-final qualification, Argentina fought back through goals from Cristian Romero and Lionel Messi to level the contest.
Further controversy emerged deep into stoppage time when Egypt claimed they should have been awarded a penalty after Alexis Mac Allister appeared to pull Hamdy Fathy in the build-up to Argentina’s decisive goal, scored by Enzo Fernandez.
The Egyptian federation argued that the officials failed to properly review incidents that could have favoured the North African side and insisted that the mistakes affected the final result.
“Aburida demanded the investigation of the entire team of referees, including the video technology referees, because of the blatant errors and insisting on not reviewing some of the footage that we believe are in favour of the Egyptian national team, and we see in it the Pharaohs’ right to a correct goal and a penalty,” the statement added.
The federation further called for the removal of the referee and his assistants from the remainder of the tournament if an investigation confirmed wrongdoing.
It said Aburida had “demanded the exclusion of the referee and the entire crew from the World Cup after investigating these mistakes and proving the crime of discrimination against the Egyptian national team”.
The complaint reflected the frustration expressed by Egypt coach Hossam Hassan shortly after the final whistle. The former striker criticised the officiating and rejected the idea that the result was simply a matter of bad luck.
“I do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today, we have suffered injustice,” Hassan told reporters.
He added: “We haven’t seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play.”
Speaking to BeIN Sports, Hassan questioned whether external factors influenced the match, suggesting that Argentina’s status as defending champions and Lionel Messi’s global appeal may have played a role.
“Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running,” he said.
“In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champions received support at every level.”
The Egyptian federation’s appeal now places further attention on FIFA’s review process and the role of officiating decisions in high-profile international matches.