{"id":251908,"date":"2026-07-07T22:04:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/cheated-burnt-nation-goes-all-in-on-rigged-world-cup-claims-in-extraordinary-interviews\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:04:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:04:00","slug":"cheated-burnt-nation-goes-all-in-on-rigged-world-cup-claims-in-extraordinary-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/cheated-burnt-nation-goes-all-in-on-rigged-world-cup-claims-in-extraordinary-interviews\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cheated\u2019: Burnt nation goes all-in on \u2018rigged\u2019 World Cup claims in extraordinary interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An emotional Mostafa Zico claimed \u201cthe referee has a robbed a whole nation\u201d in a fiery interview after Egypt\u2019s 3-2 World Cup Round of 16 loss to Argentina<\/a> in Atlanta. <\/p>\n

Lionel Messi\u2019s reigning champions pulled off a comeback for the ages as they scored in the 79th, 83rd and 93rd minutes to come from behind against the Egyptians. <\/p>\n

UFC 329: McGregor v Holloway 2 | SUN 12 JULY 11AM AEST | Conor McGregor is back. The Irish superstar takes on the always dangerous Max Holloway in a rematch 13 years in the making. | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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The Pharaohs walked away feeling hard done by, however, as several big calls from Francois Letexier went against them.<\/p>\n

Zico was the victim one such incident where his goal was ruled out for a contentious foul on Lisandro Martinez early in the build-up.<\/p>\n

English journalist Henry Winter wrote on social media: \u201cIf VAR had gone back any further in that Egyptian move Tutankhamun would be involved\u201d.<\/p>\n

Winter also added that Zico\u2019s finish \u201cwould have been one of the goals of the tournament\u201d after the excellent lead-up play. <\/p>\n

Zico copped a yellow card for taking his shirt off during the celebration of the ruled out goal.<\/p>\n

He did get his name on the scoresheet in the 67th minute, however, to give Egypt a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

But as well as the disallowed goal, the Egyptians also lamented their penalty shouts when Mohamed Salah was brought down in the box going unheard.<\/p>\n

The Pharaoh\u2019s bench erupted as a result with one member of the coaching staff receiving a red card.<\/p>\n

The controversy did not end there, though, as in the build-up to Argentina\u2019s winner scored by Enzo Fernandez, Egypt believe they should have instead been awarded a penalty for a pull by Alexis Mac Allister on Hamdy Fathy.<\/p>\n

\u2018ROBBED A NATION\u2019: Messi\u2019s tears after ALL-TIME escape act as ref furore erupts<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

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Mostafa Zico claimed \u201cthe referee has a robbed a whole nation\u201d in a fiery interview.<\/span>Source: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of those factors led to a teary Zico teeing off in his post-match interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe produced a great performance against the world champions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what happened in the second half. Strange things happened that everyone saw. It was as clear as the sun in broad daylight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe referee has robbed a whole nation of its efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations, Argentina, on winning the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zico was also not in the mood for giving credit to his opponents, who kept their title defence alive with goals from Cristian Romero, Messi and Fernandez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they had won solely on their own merits it would have been very different for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan claimed his side had been \u201ccheated\u201d out of a place in the World Cup quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today, we have suffered injustice,\u201d Hassan said in an explosive press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play,\u201d Hassan continued.<\/p>\n

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Messi leads all-time escape in comeback | 02:02<\/p>\n

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\u201cA penalty was ruled out, was not even checked by VAR. A second goal was remarkably disallowed. There has not even been a VAR check when we have all seen the image of the (shirt) being pulled back.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hassan said he would not watch any more matches of the tournament, such was the injustice he felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not going to continue following the matches of this World Cup, watching the matches of this World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my own way of speaking up.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a separate interview, he added: \u201cThe referee is unfair, God is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs. He\u2019s wasting the effort of an entire nation. The cup is directed towards Argentina.fcheated<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out and a second [incident] that should have been checked for a penalty for us was not even checked by the VAR. A second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to have been pressure on the Argentine side on the referee that has brought about this outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Yasser Ibrahim\u2019s header put Egypt in front, Argentina were awarded a penalty for a trip on Nicolas Tagliafico.<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s problems with World Cup penalties continued as his effort was saved by Mostafa Shobeir.<\/p>\n

The eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner has now failed to score four of his eight non-shootout spot-kicks at the World Cup, including two misses at this tournament.<\/p>\n

Hassan speculated that the officials had been put under pressure to keep one of the biggest names in the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running,\u201d he told BeIn Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champions received support at every level.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hassan also complained about the scheduling of the match for a noon kick-off, just four days after both sides had won their round of 32 matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever schedules those matches has never played football. You never schedule a game for 12pm. At noon you go for a walk or to eat brunch, you do not go to play football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen are the players supposed to eat? At 7.30am?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a lot of things to be questioned on and off the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An emotional Mostafa Zico claimed \u201cthe referee has a robbed a whole nation\u201d in a fiery interview after Egypt\u2019s 3-2 World Cup Round of 16 loss to Argentina in Atlanta. Lionel Messi\u2019s reigning champions pulled off a comeback for the ages as they scored in the 79th, 83rd and 93rd minutes to come from behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-251908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}