Egypt forward Mostafa Zico has accused FIFA of rigging his country’s World Cup defeat to Argentina after the defending champions completed a dramatic 3-2 comeback in Atlanta.
According to a post shared on X by Dom Lucre, Zico claimed the Argentina vs Egypt game was unfairly handled and suggested that the tournament had already favoured Argentina.
Egypt had led Argentina 2-0 before Lionel Messi inspired a late comeback, assisting Cristian Romero before scoring the equaliser. Enzo Fernández then headed in the winner in stoppage time to send Argentina into the quarterfinals.
Reacting after the match, Mostafa Zico expressed frustration with the officiating and said Egypt deserved better after their performance.
Speaking in Arabic, Zico said, “The injustice is clear and obvious. It wasted the effort of the whole country. We cannot go out like this after leading Argentina 2-0. The tournament is directed.”
He also praised Egyptian supporters and apologised for the team’s painful exit.
“We want to salute the Egyptian fans after the great performance you gave. You are world champions. I apologise to them. We wanted to make them happy today, but we couldn’t,” he said.
Zico further claimed that the outcome was beyond the players’ control and blamed the match officials for Egypt’s elimination.
“I swear, it was not in our hands. It was in the hands of the referees. The tournament was already directed against us,” he added.
The Egyptian player also congratulated Argentina sarcastically, saying the defending champions did not need anything else to win the tournament.
“Congratulations to Argentina on the World Cup. Congratulations. They don’t need anything else,” Zico said.
In the X post, Zico was also quoted as saying, “The referee was unfair, unfair, unfair, unfair.”
The comments from Mostafa Zico have added more controversy to Argentina’s historic comeback, which made them the first team in World Cup history to win a knockout match in regulation time after trailing by two goals in the 75th minute.
Argentina will now move on to the quarterfinals, while Egypt’s campaign ends after their first-ever appearance in the World Cup round of 16.
