The British newspaper The Sun confirmed that the Argentine national team benefited from two controversial refereeing decisions during their 3-2 victory over the Egyptian national team in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup, securing a qualification ticket to the quarter-finals.
The newspaper quoted former English referee Mark Halsey, who criticized the video assistant referee's intervention to disallow Mustafa "Zico"'s goal, confirming that video referee Jérôme Brisard should not have intervened in that incident.
Halsey said: "The VAR protocol allows reviewing the incident because it occurred in the same attack, but the question is: Was there a clear and obvious error that warrants intervention? For me, the answer is no."
He added that awarding a foul against Lisandro Martínez and disallowing Egypt's goal did not require video review, even though the incident falls within the same attacking phase.
The former referee also criticized the failure to award a penalty to the Egyptian national team after Mohamed Salah fell inside the penalty area following a challenge from Julián Álvarez, before Argentina launched a counterattack from which Enzo Fernández scored the winning goal in the dying minutes.
Halsey explained: "This is where the inconsistency problem appears. If the contact with Martínez warranted disallowing Egypt's goal, then the same incident with Salah should have resulted in a penalty for the Pharaohs."
He continued: "For me, VAR should not have intervened in either incident, but after intervening in the first, it should have reviewed the second as well. This is the contradiction we have been seeing frequently with video technology."
The Sun report noted that Egyptian national team striker Mustafa "Zico" went further, considering after the match that the game was "rigged" for Argentina's qualification, while Hossam Hassan, the Pharaohs' coach, launched a sharp attack on French referee François Letexier due to the refereeing decisions witnessed in the match.
The newspaper concluded its report by confirming that Egypt was close to achieving one of the tournament's biggest surprises, after taking a two-goal lead and Lionel Messi missing a penalty, before Argentina succeeded in turning the score around in the final minutes.
