I’m not sure who made this but they have clearly never watched football before. Most of these “clear foul but no card given” examples are not yellow card fouls. The first “penalty” shout is a blatant dive, and the second one Salah is going down well before any contact is made and after the Argentinian defender made contact with the ball (which they conveniently cut from this compilation).
The Egypt goal being disallowed was the correct call, there was a clear foul during that passage of play. Whether another foul was given or not given in a completely different game has absolutely no relevance to the decision making in this game. If the people complaining had watched football at any time during the last 4 years then they’d know that sometimes decisions go your way and sometimes they don’t. VAR existing doesn’t mean every game is magically completely fair, nor will any game ever feel completely fair because so many of the laws of the game are based on interpretation.
Also “players demand VAR check but referee ignores them” doesn’t mean anything. There is no rule in football that says a referee has to stop the game every time a player has a sook; that’s not even how VAR works. Everything is reviewed by the team of referees upstairs. They are the ones who will ask the on-field referee to stop during the next halt in play so they can communicate with them. The on-field referee only goes over to the screen after the VAR team have reviewed the footage themselves and believe there was a mistake. That’s why the on-field referee usually (but not always, because of interpretation) goes along with the suggestion made by VAR. None of this has anything to do with the players, they do not officiate the sport.
The only bad decisions in this game were a couple of missed yellow cards from body checks that halted attacking moves. That’s it. Everything else was fine or a minor difference of interpretation and the Egyptians, like most nations from their part of the world, are just terrible losers. They spend every game rolling around on the floor trying to con the referees into awarding them free kicks and then cry their eyes out when they get ignored. Maybe they should spend the next 4 years learning how to defend instead of dive and sook and they might not concede 3 goals in 13 minutes and massively choke a game that most other teams in the tournament would have won from that position. The built up a lot of goodwill after the last game by qualifying for the Round of 16 for the first time in nearly a century and their coach speaking out about Palestine, but if they keep the circus going all they’ll be remembered as are clowns.
Well said. The confected anger around this match is absurd. Egypt were not cheated, they threw the game away against a very good team who happen to have a genius among them.
“They spend every game rolling around on the floor trying to con the referees into awarding them free kicks and then cry their eyes out when they get ignored.” 😅
I don’t know how much football you have watched yourself, but you have clearly missed most of the matches of Argentina. Or you’re letting some personal bias cloud your judgment.
If there is any team known for its lack of sportsmanship its Argentina. The amount of referee conning, cheating, manipulating, (dangerous) foul play and whining is unparalleled.
I’m not saying that the Egyptians are saints. I’m just saying that framing the Egyptians like this, in a match against the absolute world champions of whining and conning is a bit deranged.
In what way is it deranged? More than one nation can have a reputation for shithousery, and I implied as much when I said “like most nations from their part of the world”. Argentina is one of the most well known footballing nations in the world, they are literally world champions. Trying to lecture people about them as if it proves you’re a football savant is a bit sad. How much Arab football do you watch?
You consider Argentina to be in Egypt’s part of the world, then?
Or you simply prefer to single out Arab teams?
Despite Argentina’s reputation as a bunch of cheating cry babies?
Why would I complain about Argentina cheating or crying when they did neither of those things in this match? Egypt is the team that had a meltdown as sore losers, therefore Egypt is the team I criticised.
I find it very strange that you’re accusing me of bias when the one ignoring what actually happened in that game is you. Again, my original comment was in no way an acquittal of every other footballing nation. This is a false dilemma, where you are pretending that because I singled out Egypt and Arab nations for criticism (again, context), I must therefore believe all other footballing nations are well behaved. Anyone using their brain or discussing in good faith would realise this is obviously not the case.
And you didn’t answer my question - how much Arab football do you watch?
The “their part of the world” point does suggest a relative global distribution of this behaviour though.
Then again, I do not watch a lot of Arab football.
So maybe you’re right.
The Arab nations (spread across AFC and CAF), CONMEBOL and CONCACAF all have particularly bad reputations for this kind of behaviour. I guess you could say some of the Southern European members of UEFA are pretty bad, too. I have had to watch a lot of Arab football over the years, following both Australia and Korea, so when I see them carrying on at the World Cup it triggers me more than most. Though ironically, the anti-time wasting rules introduced for this tournament did force them to behave better than they otherwise would.
They could eliminate a lot of the issues if they allowed the VAR team to call the foul without involving the ref which requires the ref to wait for a break in the action, which in this case involved a rescinded goal in the meantime. If the ref just got a message in his ear that there was a foul he missed and it needed to be brought back, this never would have happened. They already do this with offsides calls. They just tell the linesmen they missed it, they don’t wait until the play is over and send the linesman to a screen. Even though there is a little delay sometimes, it’s never this bad.
As a big tennis fan, the automation and instant review is fucking great, the players just play without any of the arguing and whining, and the players are less mentally affected by calls that don’t go their way because they’re confident they were right. But if they did it like FIFA does it and waited for the completion of a break/game/set/match point to let the chair umpire look at a screen, that would cause all kinds of bullshit. And the challenge system was bullshit. If you know, why put it on the player to stop playing, and potentially give up a point, to get the call right? They just do it right now, and hopefully FIFA will follow their example.
The ability exists for this to be almost instant, there is no reason for this.
The refs are trained to let play happen for minor fouls if a promising attack is occurring. VAR is there to catch things like this and correct them. If no scoring happens, then the game flows freely. If every foul was called that VAR saw, then the game would be stopped all the time. Also, if the fouls are called when they happen (like they used to do), then the play stops and no scoring can happen. What about when the foul is deemed to be not a foul after review? The scoring chance is gone for no reason. Most of the time, the minor fouls don’t really affect the game. They do in the box, and when they create a scoring chance. So the rules allow the game to be played to allow scoring to happen just in case what looked like a foul is not considered a foul.
Tennis is a bad example for this, since play is stopped all the time and it isn’t a contact sport. Yes, you can do automated calls like offside, goal/no goal, in/out of bounds. And two of those already are called automatically. But fouls can be very subjective, even within the same game.
I hear what you’re saying, but a foul is a foul. If the players no longer think “if the ref doesn’t see it, it’s not a foul” that might make the game flow more smoothly as well. And the refs are trained to play on if the foul was committed by the defending team, not the attacking team, this was not a play on situation, and the VAR team can be trained the same way.
The tennis analogy certainly isn’t perfect but using all the information available to the officials as soon as possible and removing as much subjectivity as possible has been a massive improvement to tennis. Unless you enjoy the drama more than you enjoy seeing who is better on a particular day.
They could eliminate a lot of the issues if they allowed the VAR team to call the foul without involving the ref which requires the ref to wait for a break in the action, which in this case involved a rescinded goal in the meantime.
VAR isn’t going to intervene quickly enough to prevent situations like that from occurring because they aren’t black and white like an offside and require time to analyse. As I said, many of fhe laws of the game (including fouls) require interpretation from the referee. You cannot compare it to something like tennis where almost every umpiring decision (fault, let, out or in, etc) is a black and white decision like offside which can be automated through the use of technology.
Regardless of the subjectivity of the calls, the VAR refs, operating under the same guidelines as the on field refs, with better angles provided by video, could make the same real time calls with more complete information. If their calls were simply followed in real time just like the on field ref, this type of situation could be avoided.
The VAR booth should have the same power to call a foul and bring it back in real time as the on field ref.
You seem to be missing the point here. If VAR is going to intervene it needs to be 100% sure that it is correct. The only way to do that on a law that requires human interpretation, such as a foul, is to thoroughly review the footage beforehand. The pace at which football can be played simply makes it impossible for VAR to instantly call fouls in real time AND get those calls correct.
I said to friends before the world cup even started or had even been drawn, that FIFA 100% wanted Messi in another final as hes a money printer for them.
They have had by far the easiest route on paper to the final I can see, and only have the Swiss and either England or Norway left.
I lost all faith for draws being anything other than fixed a long time ago, and its not just the FIFA ones.
I’m not going to comment on the draw, since I have seen so many questionable draws over the last decade. But don’t let this extraordinarily biased video be part of your proof that FIFA is pushing for Messi to win. The only people who think the ref was biased against Egypt are Egyptians.
Are you saying you see nothing missed or consistent with the ref at all during this match, or other refs during the rest of Argentina’s matches? Has any other ref you seen ever been inconsistent?
I’m boycotting this (and the last two) World Cup, so I didn’t watch this game nor any others. I have read many comments about the games, though. Nearly everyone said this was one of the best officiated matches of the tournament, or at least the most evenly officiated. What I’ve read from other matches is that the refs have been dogshit for nearly every match. I’ve read how many key things have been missed, both for European teams and for African and South American teams. I’ve read about how refs let Paraguay get away with extremely dirty play against both France and Germany. I’ve read about how the scorer for Egypt should have been given a yellow in this game for taking off his shirt, but it wasn’t given by the ref that you think was biased towards Argentina. I’ve read how the three hosts have all gone out this tournament without any on-field controversy (this does not mean there wasn’t ludicrous controversy for Balogun).
Where have I said the ref was biased towards Argentina? I asked if there was inconsistency in their and others matches, which you appear to be confirming, is that correct?
Conscious or unconscious bias, nobody outside the ref knows, but to pretend it doesn’t exist in football and it doesn’t favour the bigger team more often by any statical analysis I have seen is laughable.
The ref plays an incredibly important role in any football match, they are often the deciding factor. I am not expecting them to be perfect as thats impossible, but they can be a lot better than the shit they usually are.
First time watching football? Inconsistency is normal in refereeing, both in a single game and especially across multiple games involving different referees.
Do you want to know who else was inconsistent in this game? The players. Egypt defended well enough for 79 minutes and then crumbled. Messi had a shocker (by his standards) for a while and missed a penalty, before turning the game around late in the second half.
Referees are human just like footballers and can and will have good games and bad games and good moments and bad moments within a game.
First time watching football? Teams have a certain amount of energy, drive, ambition based on momentum within a match. The ref is very capable of stifling that with their decisions, cards, etc. Its a normal part of football. Its also beyond basic football that chances are not endless, the same opportunities to score do not exist ad infinitum. One lucky break might be all you get all match, so many fucking matches finish 1-0, if that gets ruled out, well fuck your team.
Also, its always been shit, so live with it, is an absolutely awful take. It also ignores that the bigger team gets the majority of bad decisions their way.
The fact that your immediate thought was “FiFa cOnSpIRaCy!!!” when you saw an example of refereeing inconsistency within a tournament suggests that yes, this was your first time watching football.
I can’t confirm anything, since I am only going by what others are saying. I’ve read how the refs in other games (not Argentina’s since I haven’t read anything about their other games) are basically ignoring fouls and penalties to let things flow, regardless of who it benefits. I haven’t read how this match was consistent with how the same ref called his other matches, only that his calls this match were even and consistent between these two teams.
You could maybe point out that this match was reffed inconsistently with the rest of the tournament, since the ref did call fouls and penalties; but the consensus is that this match was how the rest of the tournament SHOULD have been called.
This ignores the main thrust of the article, which was, how far can VAR wind back the clock. They even gave examples of other games and other starting fouls/balls out of play. Nice job.
I disagree with you on what the main thrust was, but if that is the main thrust, then main thrust is also nonsense. The rule does not say “less than 17 seconds before the score.” It says from the beginning of the attacking phase of play. There are numerous examples of VAR going back 30 seconds or more to overturn a goal. It sucks for the fans of the attacking team, but that has been the rule for awhile now. And it has been applied much more egregiously than this one in past games.
Consistency isn’t consistency when “everywhere” isn’t calling it that way for the big decisions: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7430665/2026/07/08/egypt-argentina-world-cup-var-goal-ziko/?source=user_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.wFA.oB5U.dlT-PAMmQZCv
I would consider awarding penalties that aren’t penalties and disallowing valid goals is the very thing I’m complaining about. Hell, even the missing yellow card you mentioned could have been pivotal another night. You even calling that out makes it very clear you don’t think its consistent as i agree, its normally an instant yellow.
Letting the game flow but getting these big decisions wrong means the former is worth fuck all.
That link is one of the most bullshit, biased “analyses” I’ve ever read. It shows multiple pictures of the the Egyptian player 1) holding onto the arm, 2) stepping on the foot, 3) then grabbing the shirt and pulling to the ground the Argentinian attacker… and then he says it probably wasn’t a foul because they both had to put their feet somewhere?? He also said it shouldn’t count as the start of the attacking phase because the Argentinian players didn’t run hard enough to get back on defense?? That is not what the rules say. Nearly every other thing I’ve read about that exact play said the right call was made. Watching the video is even more clear this was a foul, since ignoring the foot stomp you can very clearly watch the Egyptian player drag the Argentinian player to the ground by his shirt.
This whole story is about Egyptians feeling like the ref was biased against them. If the ref didn’t give Egypt a yellow that they deserved then it kinda discounts the claims made in this video.
I hope Argentina face Norway. They’ll be a beautiful loss.
