Egypt's Disallowed Goal Against Argentina: Refereeing Error Officially Confirmed

The goal refused to Egypt during its 3-2 defeat against Argentina in the World Cup round of 16 should not have been annulled. This is the conclusion that emerges after analysis of the controversial action involving French referee François Letexier.

Former international referee Tony Chapron broke down the disputed sequence. According to him, Letexier had up to that point delivered a consistent performance in a highly contested match, applying the philosophy of tolerance promoted by FIFA throughout the tournament: letting play continue despite fouls and physical engagement. It was the intervention of the video referee that changed everything.

“There will be 18 seconds between the moment of the foul and the goal. We covered more than 100 metres. Argentina had at least four opportunities to stop the action,” Chapron detailed. Once presented with the images by VAR, Letexier found himself in a bind: the foul at the origin of the action did exist, but it had occurred on the opposite end of the field, well before play developed.

For Chapron, the real person responsible is Jérôme Brisard, the video referee, who should never have gone back so far in the action. “Since the start of the tournament, fouls like that, I’ve seen 1,000 of them. They weren’t called,” he recalled, denouncing a glaring lack of consistency with the overall refereeing of the competition. “Once you’re in front of the images, you’re stuck, you’re forced to say there’s a foul. Objectively, there is a foul. But in the context of the match and the tournament, it absolutely should not have been called.”

The error, then, is not so much in Letexier’s final decision — technically defensible — but in Brisard’s choice to submit this action to video review, in contradiction with the guideline applied throughout the competition. Egypt, eliminated on this 3-2 scoreline, has plenty of reason for regret.