NEW YORK — The award for the most chaotically eccentric post-match interview of the World Cup has to go to Hossam Hassan.
“I will say what’s on my mind regardless of the consequence, because I don’t care,” said the Egypt head coach.
“This is clearly a rigged match. If they want Argentina to win so bad, why call everyone else to come and participate?”
Hassan had just watched a two-goal lead evaporate before his eyes, Egypt knocked out by the world champions after a VAR debacle involving two goals – one which was allowed to stand, and one which was not. A foul on Argentina’s Lisandro Martinez was given, preventing a goal. When it was an infringement on Mo Salah at the other end, it was play on.
Tin hats around the world, and particularly from IP addresses in Madeira, Portugal, transmitted the signal. Across the globe, keyboards hammered home the conspiracy theory that the World Cup has been predetermined so that Lionel Messi can win it again. Before a ball was kicked there were grumblings about Argentina’s side of the draw, avoiding Spain, France and Portugal.
The two VAR incidents which decided Egypt’s defeat (Photo: BBC Sport)It should go without saying that there is little point giving credence to the idea that the World Cup is being deliberately gifted to one nation. For one, the hypothesis conveniently ignores Brazil and England, two of the initial favourites, in their half of the pot. If you have ever been involved in an office group project, you will accept how difficult it is to organise two or three people to do anything, let alone dozens of officials to purposely rig an entire competition under the noses of the watching world.
But this is the problem when Fifa dirty their hands like this. The soot contaminates everything it touches. In the days after Donald Trump’s intervention to repeal the suspension of USA striker Folarin Balogun, everything feels fair game. When sporting decisions are dictated by phone calls from the head of state, the boundaries of credibility are shattered. Whichever way you squint at it, the bigger picture looks crooked.
If we are operating in a climate of hyper-sensitivity to cronyism and corruption, Gianni Infantino has made it that way.
The result is that one of the greatest ever World Cup comebacks – and quite possibly the game of the tournament – has been tarnished. Messi did the unthinkable again, wrestling his country back from the brink. His brilliance shines like a light through the fog of farce circulating around the knockout stages; it makes him as much a victim as anyone else.
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Kat Lucas: Cristiano Ronaldo’s teammates should never forgive him Daniel Storey: Donald Trump has single-handedly torched America’s World Cup legacyApart from anything else, the notion that Argentina are alone in benefitting from officiating incompetence is self-evidently ridiculous. England were fortunate not to concede a penalty against Ghana. In their win over Paraguay almost every conceivable decision went against the French. Jonathan Tah’s goal for Germany in the round of 32 was needlessly ruled out. We are not really meant to say it anymore, but Balogun’s red card itself was harsh.
There will always be those who see what they want to see. Their plots are usually dismissed as outlandish, but only for as long as the ordinary rules of the competition appear unshakeable. Once public confidence is lost in the integrity of the game, it is not easy to recover.
That is why there has to be a clean slate in 2027. Gianni Infantino has one year left in office until the next Fifa presidential vote, when he will seek re-election. Before Balogun, that was questionable. Now it is unconscionable.
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