Tuchel blasts refereeing after England's qualification against Mexico

England qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals by beating Mexico, but Thomas Tuchel was in no mood to celebrate when the final whistle blew. The evening had already been marred by a serious wrist injury to Jordan Henderson, who was evacuated to hospital during the match.

It was primarily the refereeing of Alireza Faghani that infuriated the German manager. Within the space of fifteen minutes in the second half, the Iranian referee — already criticized in the group stage for missing a penalty in favour of Kylian Mbappé during France-Senegal — sent off Jarell Quansah and awarded two penalties, converted respectively by Harry Kane and Raul Jimenez.

“He is simply not good enough,” Tuchel said at his press conference. “The referees are not good enough, the fourth officials are not either. That’s the reality.” The former PSG manager also contested the twelve minutes of added time awarded, arguing that the referee had unjustifiably extended the clock after two late corners.

But it was the composition of the VAR team that triggered his most scathing criticism. Tuchel questioned the impartiality of the video officials, suggesting that their geographical origin posed a problem for a match involving a North American side. “Did I see correctly? Three South Americans on VAR for a match like this? I may be mistaken, but if that’s the case…” he said.

He then detailed what he considered an arbitrary VAR intervention: “It didn’t turn a yellow card into a red, it hadn’t even whistled the foul in the first place, then it overturned a decision when it hadn’t whistled a foul. The level of the referees is not good enough, nor is that of the fourth officials.”

Despite these turbulences, England held firm and reached the final four of the competition.