Messi escapes red card as 'rigged' accusations overshadow Argentina's 3-0 win over Algeria

Lionel Messi was not even booked after appearing to plant his studs on Algeria defender Aissa Mandi’s right calf during Argentina’s 3-0 World Cup Group J win, a decision that ignited immediate accusations of referee bias and drew sharp criticism from television analysts.

The incident occurred minutes after Messi had opened the scoring — his first goal of the tournament — and left Lille defender Mandi clutching his calf on the pitch. Neither the on-field referee, Szymon Marciniak, nor VAR intervened to issue a card. Argentina went on to score twice more in the second half, with Messi completing what the source describes as his first World Cup hat-trick, but the refereeing call dominated post-match discussion.

ESPN pundit Nedum Onuoha said the moment was missed at both levels of officiating. “It probably should have been a red card,” he said. “When the player was on the floor, you could see Messi had a level of concern towards him because he knew that he potentially had just done something there that could get him in trouble. For the video assistant referee to look at that and say ‘nah, that’s all fine’, I personally think that is worthy of a red card.”

His co-pundit Ale Moreno was more emphatic. “100% a red card for Lionel Messi. It should have been,” Moreno said, adding that the decision fed a damaging narrative around elite players. “You’re raking the back of someone’s calf all the way from the knee down to the ankle. Why is Marciniak not being called over to see this? As much as I love Lionel Messi, that was a clumsy challenge, a bad challenge. Should have been a red card.”

Reaction on social media was swift and pointed. One post on X read: “It’s so obvious that FIFA is going to protect Messi again this World Cup. That should have easily been a red card. Expect the same with Ronaldo. It’s going to be rigged for them to play against each other.” Another user wrote: “There’s no way this isn’t a red card. Even Messi himself realised the blunder he made. They didn’t even give him a yellow.”

The controversy places FIFA’s VAR operation under scrutiny early in the tournament, with critics arguing that the standard applied to Messi would have resulted in a dismissal for any other player on the pitch.