The Argentine Football Association indicated the possibility of it being subjected to a cyber attack after reports indicated that emails from its official accounts criticized the refereeing in the match of the national team's 3-2 victory over Egypt in the World Cup.
The Argentine national team, the World Cup holders, were on the verge of a surprising exit from the round of 16 after trailing Egypt 2-0, but they achieved a wonderful comeback in the final minutes to reach the quarter-finals.
Following the defeat, the Egyptian Football Association demanded that FIFA exclude the French referee François Letexier and the refereeing crew responsible for the match from the tournament, accusing them of bias in favor of Argentina.
For its part, the British Broadcasting Corporation "BBC" and a number of Argentine newspapers, led by "La Voz", citing external sources, confirmed that emails were sent from the Argentine Football Association's account to journalists after the match stating that "Argentina did not win" and that the victory was invalid because it came as a result of "corrupt refereeing decisions".
The newspaper indicated that sources in the Argentine Football Association confirmed that a group of hackers of Egyptian origin were behind these messages, which also praised Egypt's performance.
In response to the incident, a statement issued by the Argentine Football Association said: "We would like to inform you that we have detected the possibility of emails being sent from one of our institutional accounts, which were not created or authorized by our team".
The statement asked the public to "ignore any message that reaches you recently from our account and is unusual, especially if it contains links or attachments or requests for personal information".
The association added: "There is a possibility that our account has been subjected to unauthorized hacking, so we are working to clarify what happened and take the necessary security measures".
