Jerry Spudnick

🚨🗣️New: Mohamed Salah on the controversial officiating decisions in Egypt and Argentina game, Messi and Argentina are being favored: “People will say Argentina showed the mentality of champions. Fine. But tell me this: when exactly did Egypt get the same protection from the officials? We scored a second goal. The stadium exploded. The world saw it. Then suddenly VAR became an archaeologist, digging through the ruins of football history to find a foul from another lifetime. Funny how they could rewind the game Five minutes to cancel our goal, but when I was brought down in the box, everyone suddenly forgot where the replay button was. That’s what hurts. Not losing. Not Argentina. The inconsistency. One decision gets examined under a microscope. Another gets buried under the carpet. We were told football is decided on the pitch. Tonight it felt like it was decided in a control room. And let’s talk about those final minutes. Two penalty appeals. Two moments that could have changed everything. Nothing. No review. No urgency. No explanation. Then Argentina go down the other end and score the winner. That isn’t a plot twist. That’s the kind of script that leaves millions of people asking questions. Egypt fought for every blade of grass. We defended. We believed. We earned our moments. But every time we climbed the mountain, someone moved the summit. The disallowed goal. The ignored penalty shouts. The cards flying around our bench because people who dedicate their lives to this game couldn’t understand what they were witnessing. And now we’re expected to smile and say football won? No. Football wins when the rules are applied equally. Football wins when VAR is a shield for fairness, not a sword that appears only when convenient. Because from where I’m standing, Egypt didn’t just lose 3-2. Egypt lost a goal, lost two penalty appeals, lost faith in consistency, and eventually lost a place in the quarter-finals. Maybe Argentina deserved to advance. Maybe they didn’t. That’s football. But what will make people angry isn’t the result. It’s the feeling that one team was forced to play against eleven men, the clock, and a set of decisions that seemed to change shape whenever the game demanded it. And that’s why this match will be remembered long after the scoreline is forgotten.”

"It's clear that this tournament has been fixed." Egypt's Mostafa Zico was not happy with some of the decisions in their game against Argentina.