The refereeing decisions taken during the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup between Argentina and Egypt continue to provoke strong reactions. At the heart of the controversy, François Letexier, referee of the match, is criticized on both the Egyptian and Argentinian sides.
According to local newspaper La Calle, an email sent from an account linked to the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) was received by several accredited journalists. The message directly called into question the performance of François Letexier, affirming that “Argentina did not win” and that the qualification of the Albiceleste resulted from “corrupt arbitral decisions”. The text also praised the performance of the Egyptian selection.
The Argentine Federation victim of hacking
Faced with the distribution of this email, the AFA quickly denied being at the origin. The Argentine body assured that the message had neither been written nor validated by its communications department and that it was the result of unauthorized access to its computer systems.
Always according to The Callesources within the Federation indicated that a group of computer hackers of Egyptian origin would have infiltrated part of the AFA database. The perpetrators of this attack are said to have collected email addresses, passwords and IP addresses, before offering this information on specialized forums.
The Egyptian Federation calls for an investigation
This new controversy comes a few days after the official request made by the Egyptian Football Federation. After the elimination of the Pharaons, the body requested from Fifa the exclusion of François Letexier for the remainder of the competition. Through its president Hany Abou Rida, the Egyptian Federation also requested the opening of an investigation, denouncing “blatant refereeing errors”
as well as “the application of a double standard” which, according to her, would have directly contributed to the defeat of the selection.
Director of FIFA Arbitration, Pierluigi Collina reacted to these various accusations in an interview published on the body’s website. If he said to himself “satisfied overall”
of the work of the referees selected for this North American World Cup, the former Italian international referee firmly defended the integrity of the officials.
