French arbitration expert Tony Chapron condemned the decision to disallow the Egyptian national team's goal in the Argentina net, in the match that brought the two teams together, for the 2026 World Cup competitions.
The Argentine national team defeated its Egyptian counterpart by three goals to two, in the match that brought the two teams together the evening before last, Tuesday, at Atlanta Stadium, for the round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup.
While the Egyptian national team was leading by one goal to nil, Mustafa Abdel Raouf Zico succeeded in scoring the second goal for the Pharaohs at the start of the second half, but it was disallowed after a video review on the grounds of a free kick at the start in favor of Argentina.
World Cup refereeing standards
Chapron rejected the decision of the French duo, François Letexier, the field referee, and Jérôme Brisard, the video assistant referee in the Egypt-Argentina match, to disallow the Pharaohs' goal, noting that this decision is inconsistent with the refereeing standards in the 2026 World Cup.
Tony Chapron said in statements reported by the French newspaper Sport: "Until the 60th minute, everything was going well.. His refereeing was consistent in a very difficult match."
He added: "Referee François Letexier adopted the philosophy we heard about from FIFA, which is to let play continue, so there was acceptance of a large number of fouls and physical challenges, and therefore he managed the match according to this approach."
Wrong decision in Argentina's favor
He continued: "Should the video referee have intervened to disallow Egypt's goal? No, never, because since the start of the tournament I have seen a thousand similar cases to this one, and none of them were called fouls."
He added: "The real person responsible in this incident is Jérôme Brisard, the video referee, because he put Letexier in a very difficult position; as soon as you stand in front of the replay screen, you become constrained and forced to admit there was a foul, and objectively, yes, there is a foul, but in the context of the match and the tournament, it should not have been called."
Video assistant referee intervention
The former French referee continued: "When the video referee called him to review a foul that occurred at the start of the attack, he found himself in an unenviable position, and I believe the VAR room should not have gone back to that distant incident."
Tony Chapron concluded his statements by saying: "Eighteen seconds passed between the moment the foul was committed and the goal was scored, during which the ball traveled more than 100 meters, and the Argentine national team had at least four opportunities to stop the attack, but it did not."
