Beyond the absolute cinema that Argentina produced against Egypt in a FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 16 match on Tuesday, the accusations have been serious. Some tricky VAR decisions, which many alleged went in favour of Argentina, led to allegations from the Egypt camp that the World Cup was “rigged” to favour Lionel Messi‘s team. From 2-0 down, Argentina scored three goals in 13 minutes to win 3-2.
Speaking to the broadcaster after the match, Egypt’s Mostafa Ziko said: “No fair, no fair, referee, no fair. Injustice, clear and obvious injustice. He is wasting the efforts of an entire country. From the start of the match, he was against us. It is not allowed for us to leave as 2-0 winners against Argentina. The tournament is fixed. God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs.”
In the midst of this, FIFA has announced an all-Argentine referee line-up for the France vs Morocco quarter-final on July 10 (IST). The fact that France could be a potential opponent for Argentina later in the tournament has given rise to a new conspiracy theory among fans – that such a step was taken to make things tough for Mbappe’s side. In fact, this is the first time in the 2026 World Cup that a game will have match officials from a single nation.
FIFA has confirmed the match officials for the 2026 FIFA World Cup quarter-final between France and Morocco, with an all-Argentine crew, led by main referee Facundo Tello, set to officiate the game.
It is the first time in this World Cup edition that a game will have match officials exclusively from a single nation.
The main referee for the France vs Morocco match is Facundo Tello. The official earlier supervised Morocco’s World Cup quarter-final win against Portugal in Qatar 2022.
All Argentina referees for a france match, FIFA trying everything to rig the World Cup for Argentina once again
— DrewS🇫🇷🇵🇹 (@XnzyDrewS) July 7, 2026
However, a section of social media was quick to point out that the Argentina vs Egypt game had French officials.
Didnt complain here idiot pic.twitter.com/ngPa9FJPkz
— Timeline (@TheLM10Timeline) July 7, 2026
You know there were all French refs for the Argentina match against Egypt, right?
— Mem Fan (@BestDay4Bacon) July 8, 2026
— nachocheesefries (@KillingRoofed) July 7, 2026
Meanwhile, Morocco’s national football team began preparations in Boston for their FIFA World Cup 2026 quarter-final clash against stronger France.
The Official Account of the Morocco National Football Team shared pictures from the team’s training session on X, highlighting their preparations ahead of the highly anticipated knockout encounter.
“First training session in Boston ahead of the quarter-finals,” the Morocco National Football Team wrote on X while sharing images of the players training.
Morocco created history at the FIFA World Cup 2026 by becoming the first African nation to reach the quarter-finals in two editions of the tournament after defeating co-hosts Canada 3-0 in a highly physical Round of 16 clash. The match produced the most disciplinary action of the tournament so far, with the referee showing eight yellow cards and awarding 38 fouls.
The Atlas Lions delivered a dominant second-half performance after withstanding Canadian pressure in the opening period. Azzedine Ounahi scored twice, becoming the first Moroccan player since 1998 to net a brace in a World Cup match, while Soufiane Rahimi added a late third goal to seal the victory.
With ANI inputs