Refereeing decisions came under scrutiny again at the 2026 World Cup following Argentina's 3-2 victory over Egypt, a result that allowed Lionel Scaloni's team to advance to the quarter-finals after coming back from a two-goal deficit.
After the match, the Egyptian Football Federation issued a statement questioning the performance of French referee François Letexier and the VAR, overseen by Jérôme Brisard. The complaints focused on the disallowance of a goal by the African team and an alleged foul by Julián Álvarez on Mohamed Salah in the play that led to Argentina's third goal.
In light of the controversy, FIFA decided to take a stance. The director of the Refereeing Division of the organization, Pierluigi Collina, publicly defended the work of the refereeing team during an interview with the official site of the entity.
Without directly mentioning Egypt's statement, the former Italian referee acknowledged that the match generated debate and explained the criteria used in the actions that sparked the most controversy.
