A report revealed that the International Federation of Football Association "FIFA" decided to review the refereeing performance of the French referee François Letexier, who managed the Egypt and Argentina match in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup, following the official protest submitted by the Egyptian Football Association against his decisions during the match.
The Egyptian Association had demanded the exclusion of Letexier and his crew from the rest of the tournament matches, after the great controversy that accompanied the match, especially after canceling Egypt's national team goal and refusing to award a penalty kick to Mohamed Salah before Argentina's third goal, decisions that sparked a wide wave of criticism.
According to a report bythe French newspaper L'Équipe, FIFA's referees committee will review the entire match, by evaluating the referee's technical performance, reviewing the match officials' reports, in addition to reviewing the controversial refereeing clips, before making a decision regarding his continuation in managing the tournament matches.
"L'Équipe" explained that this review comes amid great pressure due to the Egyptian objections and the controversy that accompanied the confrontation.
The report confirmed that the Egyptian Association's demand to exclude Letexier cannot be implemented directly, because the appointment of referees and their selection to manage matches is the prerogative of the FIFA referees committee, and no national association has the right to impose a "veto" on a specific referee.
Nevertheless, the newspaper indicated that the French referee's future in the tournament will be determined based on the referees committee's evaluation of his performance in the match.
It added that the current indicators do not favor Letexier's exclusion due to his performance against Egypt, but it pointed to another factor that may affect his continuation, which is the progress of the French national team in the tournament, as it has been customary in some editions not to assign advanced round matches to referees whose national teams belong to the qualified countries, to avoid any potential conflict.
"L'Équipe" concluded its report by confirming that Letexier still enjoys a great standing on the international scene, after he managed the final of the 2024 European Nations Cup, and was awarded the title of best referee in the world for 2024, which makes his exclusion from the tournament at the present time unlikely.
