Egypt manager shares his thoughts after making ‘X’ gesture in loss to Argentina
Egypt’s manager, Hossam Hassan, spoke out after making an ‘X’ gesture during his team’s tough 3-2 loss to Argentina in the World Cup last 16. This gesture is often used to call out racist abuse.
Egypt took an early 2-0 lead against Argentina but then let in three goals in the last 11 minutes. Cristian Romero of Spurs scored to narrow the gap, followed by a brilliant half-volley from Lionel Messi that brought a lot of excitement. Then, in stoppage time, Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez scored with a header to complete Argentina’s comeback.
The Egypt players were unhappy about Messi’s goal, saying there was a foul before the goal. Earlier, Egypt had a goal called off for a foul before Mostafa Ziko scored what would have been a 2-0 lead. Ziko did score a bit later, but the team and coaches were still upset.
During the stoppage time, Hassan got a yellow card and made the ‘X’ gesture towards the referee, Francois Letexier. Letexier then talked with Hassan and his twin brother Ibrahim, who tried to calm things down. Ibrahim gave the referee a thumbs-up before the game continued.
The ‘X’ gesture usually signals reports of racial abuse, but it wasn’t clear if that was the reason here, as others on Egypt’s bench didn’t react the same.
In his post-match talk, Hassan didn’t explain the gesture directly but criticized FIFA and the referee a lot. He said they didn’t see respect or fair play. Hassan felt a penalty was wrongly canceled, and VAR didn’t check another one. He also mentioned a goal was unfairly disallowed, suggesting pressure on the referee from Argentina’s side may have played a part.
He said, “Life isn’t fair, but why isn’t sports fair? I’m not happy with how things went.” Hassan added that Egypt had raised concerns about Letexier being the referee since he is French.
Hassan also claimed Egypt played better than the champions but that outside factors influenced the result. “Maybe they wanted to keep the world champions and Messi in the tournament,” he said.
Argentina, as current champions, will now face the winner of Switzerland vs. Colombia in the quarter-finals. There’s talk Messi might retire from international football after this World Cup, but at 38, he hasn’t made any announcements yet.