The scoreline read: Argentina 3 – Egypt 2. But who won? For seventy-eight glorious minutes, Egypt had done the unthinkable. They led by two goals to zero against the reigning world champions, and it seemed as if it was going to be curtains for the greatest footballer of our time, Lionel Messi.

But the score, even in those seventy-eight minutes, should have been 3–0. Egypt’s second goal was disallowed for an alleged foul at the other end of the ground, half a minute previously.

Several footballing greats, including former England players Alan Shearer, Rob Green, Jamie Carragher and Ian Wright, questioned this decision, as well as the inconsistent refereeing that awarded Argentina a penalty, but denied one to Egypt. ‘Either both are fouls, or neither is,’ Alan Shearer, who is the Premier League’s all-time leading goal scorer, wrote on social media.

Once play begins, whatever the inequalities of the world outside, on the football field, there is parity. Both sides play on the same ground, in the same conditions, with the same ball, and under the same rules.

On the football field, we see the distant glimmer of a socialist future: equal rules, equal conditions, equal chance for each player to realise their true potential. No wonder football is the most popular sport on earth.

The catch, of course, is that football is played in the real world, with real inequalities, with real wars and real geopolitical stakes.

US/FIFA BULLYING

There are numerous examples of teams being done in by unfair practices. This World Cup, however, has taken it to an unprecedented low. FIFA, global custodian of football, is asphyxiating the beautiful game. Consider just a few examples.

A Somalian referee was not allowed entry into the US despite being on the elite panel of referees selected by FIFA to officiate in this World Cup. FIFA did nothing.

Some teams, including Senegal and Uzbekistan, were subjected to mistreatment and humiliations even as they entered the US. FIFA did nothing.

The team representing Iran was given visas only ten days before the start of the tournament. Some fifteen members of their staff were denied entry. The team’s base was shifted from the US to Mexico, and the players were forced to exit the US immediately after their matches. FIFA did nothing.

The impression was unmistakable. FIFA was throwing everything at Iran to stop them from progressing. The same FIFA that, dancing to Trump’s tune, ‘suspended’ a US player’s red card to allow him to play in a knockout match.

It takes little imagination to guess the reason for FIFA acting like Trump’s hitman. At Netanyahu’s bidding, Trump had started an illegal war of aggression against Iran, a country demonised by the Western media for decades. The war against Iran extended to the football ground as well.

But Iran went out heroes. Undefeated in battle, undefeated in sport.

GET EGYPT OUT!

Why was Egypt to be denied, though? What explains FIFA’s partisanship here? Here are two main reasons.

One, FIFA, right from the time of its president João Havelange, has been a corrupt, money-making, greed machine. His successor Sepp Blatter institutionalized it further, and under current president Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s avarice and supplication before power and profit knows no bounds.

Advertisers and sponsors hate it when teams featuring superstars are knocked out early. No accident, then, that Croatia were denied a goal in the dying minutes so that Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal could progress. They were knocked out in the next round, as were Brazil, featuring superstars Neymar Jr and Vinicius Jr. Imagine the commercial disaster for FIFA if even Messi’s Argentina exited.

But make no mistake. Irrespective of what you think of Messi as a footballer, it would be childish to hold him responsible for the referees’ bias. That bias, the hardened resolve to not let Egypt progress by beating Argentina, comes from the very top. 

The referee only pulls the trigger. The gun belongs to FIFA and its boss, Gianni Infantino.

But there’s another reason. Every time Egypt takes the field, it does so as the team of two peoples – Egyptians and Palestinians. While successive Egyptian governments have abandoned Palestine for the last few decades, as have almost all governments in the Arab world, the people of Egypt and Palestine share a deep bond. Gaza is next door to Egypt, and before Gaza was sealed off by Israel, there was a great deal of to-and-fro across that border. Even after Gaza was isolated by Israel, for a long time, underground tunnels from Egypt provided Gaza a secret lifeline.

After Egypt won its first knockout match in the World Cup (in the Round of 32, against Australia), Hossam Hassan, their head coach and himself a legend of the sport, carried a Palestine flag on the pitch and dedicated the victory to the people of both Egypt and Palestine, whom he called ‘kind and honorable’. ‘If anyone in the world does not feel for the Palestinian people, they do not deserve to be human’, he said.

GAZA – FOOTBALL DURING GENOCIDE

Football is big in Gaza. Before October 2023, Gaza had several active football clubs and stadiums, all of which now lie in ruins. As Gazans followed the successes of Egypt at the World Cup, it provided a tiny sliver of joy to people brutalised by the ongoing genocide. Journalist Karim Zidan reports:

‘The Egyptian Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza is among the humanitarian entities that has organised public watch parties for displaced Palestinians fleeing ethnic cleansing to watch the 2026 World Cup. The committee provided screens, seating and electricity in places like Gaza City to allow a rare moment of distraction from ongoing devastation. Children draped themselves in Egyptian flags while others gathered in crowds to cheer on the Egyptian squad, and its beloved talisman Mohamed Salah.’

Then, an hour before the Egypt–Argentina game, Israel assassinated Mohamed Al-Wahidi of the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza. He was involved in setting up projection facilities for World Cup watch parties. What was to have been a time of excitement and joy for the children of Gaza turned into a time of mourning.

Egypt was robbed. They were robbed of the chance to pull off the greatest-ever upset in football World Cup history. And with Egypt, Palestine was robbed. Robbed of the chance to have their cause furthered in front of the world’s media. Robbed of the momentary simple joy of victory on the sporting field.

Iran and Egypt are out of the World Cup. But they won the hearts of the oppressed the world over. They won the admiration of every genuine football lover. Along with Cabo Verde, they showed the world how to fight with courage, self-respect and dignity. They demonstrated that bullies can be humbled. They won the hearts of the world.