October 20: Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan and team manager Ibrahim Hassan have been handed three suspensions by FIFA, with striker Mostafa Zico banned for five, three months after their furious reaction to one of the World Cup’s most controversial knockout matches.
The sanctions relate to comments made after Egypt’s 3-2 defeat by Argentina in the last 16, a game in which the Pharaohs went 2-0 up before conceding three times in 13 minutes and going on goal to Enzo Fernández’s goal.
The Egyptian Football Association has asked FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee for the full reasoning behind the decisions and will then decide whether to appeal.
The punishment reopens a row that never went away.
Egypt had a Mostafa Zico goal disallowed as they went 1-0 up after VAR again ruled Marwan Attia’s admittedly soft foul on Lisandro Martinez well before the play, on the edge of his own area. Zico later scored again to make it 2-0, before Argentina’s late comeback.
In addition, Mohamed Salah went down under a challenge from Julián Álvarez in the Argentinian penalty area, while Alexis Mac Allister was also accused of fouling Hamdy Fathy.
Play continued and Argentina broke up the field, with Fernández heading home the winner in the 92nd minute. Sky Sports reported that Álvarez caught Salah on the foot before taking the ball, while neither incident led to an on-field VAR review.
After the match, Hassan said: “The referee is unfair, God is enough for me and the best dispenser of affairs. He is wasting the effort of a whole nation. The cup goes to Argentina.”
He also claimed pressure on French referee François Letexier before the Argentina game influenced the officiating. Zico went further in separate interviews, calling the match “fixed” and accusing the referee of deciding the outcome.
The EFA subsequently lodged a formal complaint with FIFA and called for Letexier and his team to be removed from the rest of the tournament, citing what it described as serious concerns about the consistency and fairness of the decisions.
FIFA stood firmly behind its officials.
Referees chief Pierluigi Collina said Attia’s foul was correctly called because VAR reviews the entire phase of offensive possession before a goal, regardless of how far away the offense occurs.
He also supported the decision not to award Egypt a penalty against Argentina’s winner, and described the contact between Alvarez and Salah as “normal football contact”.
“Constructive discussion about decisions will always be part of football, but unfounded allegations have no place in our sport,” Collina said at the time.
The bans now have consequences beyond a World Cup that ended months ago. Hossam and Ibrahim Hassan could miss Egypt’s AFCON qualifiers against Malawi in November and another match in March, while Zico’s five-match ban will keep him out until June.
Egypt has not yet said whether it will challenge the punishments, but with the federation still awaiting FIFA’s written reasoning, the discussion over Atlanta is far from over.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at (email protected)