Egypt have alleged refereeing bias in favour of Argentina and Lionel Messi following their dramatic 3-2 loss in the FIFA World Cup round of 16.
Egypt had led 2-0 with 11 minutes remaining and were closing in on a historic first-ever World Cup quarter-final appearance before Argentina staged a stunning comeback and scored the winner in stoppage time.
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan says his side was treated unfairly and suffered injustice.
Hassan has also questioned whether there was a desire to keep defending champions Argentina and Messi in the tournament.
He says perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition and perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.
Egypt have blamed what they describe as serious refereeing mistakes and double standards from French referee Francois Letexier and his officiating team.
The controversy includes a disallowed goal for Egypt after a VAR intervention.
Mostafa Zico’s goal was ruled out after Marwan Attia was penalised for stepping on the foot of Argentina defender Lisandro Martinez earlier in the move.
Egypt also believed they had two possible penalty claims before Enzo Fernandez headed home Argentina’s winning goal.
Hamdi Fathy went down claiming he was held by Alexis Mac Allister, while Mohamed Salah believed he was tripped by Julian Alvarez.
However, replays were unclear on the Fathy incident, while the contact involving Salah was not considered sufficient for a penalty.
Egypt have reportedly asked FIFA to remove the officials involved in the match from the tournament.
Argentina, who also battled to a 3-2 win over Cape Verde in the previous knockout round, remain in contention to defend their World Cup title.
Source: BBC Sports
