Ibrahim Hassan: We faced threats on the pitch

Ibrahim Hassan, the director of the Egyptian national team, confirmed that Hossam Hassan, the team's head coach, was threatened by the referee during the Round of 16 match against Argentina in the World Cup, which ended in a 3-2 victory for the Tango team. In statements to MBC Masr, Ibrahim Hassan said, "When the second goal that was disallowed was scored, you could feel a shock among everyone in the stadium, including FIFA officials, as if a decision had been made to cancel everything happening." He added, "What happened with the referee was surprising; he did not go to review the VAR, nor did he ask the VAR officials to review any footage, which is unusual." He continued, "I tell everyone: we are not looking for excuses, but at least the referee should have reviewed the footage... He was supposed to see Mohamed Salah's incident, our disallowed goal, and the incident involving Hamdi Fathy; none of these were reviewed via VAR, and no one asked him to go back and check those situations." Ibrahim Hassan explained that the French referee, François Letexier, threatened Hossam Hassan during their discussion after Argentina's third goal, stating, "Regarding the altercation between Hossam Hassan and the French referee? The referee was threatening him... the gesture that Hossam Hassan made is recognized by FIFA as the official way to protest." He added, "Hossam Hassan embarrassed the referee, and therefore, he showed him a yellow card, which was very strange and contradicts FIFA's instructions, and then he returned to threaten him, as if he was looking for a reason to send him off, as it seemed he had decided to exert pressure on him." He concluded, "I don't know if the referee acted based on his personal conviction, or based on instructions, or to please someone, but what happened cannot be considered just football... We played a great match, scored goals, had two goals disallowed, and there were many controversial situations."