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Many people don’t know this, but the crossed-arms “X” signal is FIFA’s universal gesture for reporting racist abuse. When a player, coach, or team official makes that signal, they’re informing the referee that racist abuse has occurred. It is meant to trigger FIFA’s three-step anti-racism protocol: first stop the match, then suspend it if the abuse continues, and ultimately abandon the match if it doesn’t stop. Today, Egypt manager Hossam Hassan made the “X” gesture from the touchline. Instead of initiating the protocol, the referee booked Hassan with a yellow card and allowed play to continue.

There is no conclusive proof. But the circumstantial evidence that there is pro-Argentina bias in FIFA affecting the World Cup: 1) In the group stage opener against Algeria, Messi caught Aïssa Mandi with a studs-up challenge on the Achilles and escaped any card. FIFA later admitted the VAR officials got it wrong and sanctioned them. 2) The inconsistency became undeniable when the United States' Folarin Balogun was sent off in the Round of 32 for a near-identical foot-on-ankle challenge on Bosnia's Tarik Muharemović. Pundits directly compared the red card to Messi's uncarded foul on Mandi. 3) In the 2026 Round of 32 against Cape Verde, referee Drew Fischer did not enforce the tournament's new rule requiring an injured player to remain off the pitch after treatment. He waited for Argentina's Nicolás Tagliafico to return before allowing a Cape Verde corner. Several uncalled fouls in that game also went Argentina's way. 4) Today against Egypt, with Egypt leading 1-0, Mostafa Ziko finished off a long breakaway to make it 2-0. VAR sent Letexier to the monitor and the goal was disallowed for a Marwan Attia shirt-pull on Lisandro Martínez that occurred roughly 20 seconds earlier and nearly the full length of the pitch from goal. 5) Neutral officiating experts, not just Egyptian fans, called the decision wrong. Former FIFA referee Mark Clattenburg said he did not believe it was a foul and did not believe VAR should have intervened at all, adding that the call was inconsistent with the physical contact referees had allowed all tournament. 6) The winning sequence produced a second grievance. In the buildup to Enzo Fernández's stoppage-time winner, Egypt appealed for a penalty on a Salah challenge and for an Alexis Mac Allister shirt-pull, and VAR checked neither. Hassan cited the unreviewed Mac Allister pull directly in his post-match remarks. 7) The 2026 grievances land on top of a 2022 record In Qatar, Argentina were awarded five penalties, the most ever by a team in a single World Cup edition, with Messi taking all five. That same tournament, Messi handled the ball against the Netherlands in the quarterfinal and escaped a yellow card. 8) FIFA has appointed an all-Argentine crew, led by Facundo Tello, for Thursday's France–Morocco quarterfinal, the tournament's first all-same-country panel. 9) Comments attributed to Infantino after an Argentina match were widely discussed as suggesting bias toward Argentina before he later clarified them, and a deep Messi run drives far more global viewership and revenue than one without him. This establishes incentive. FIFA cannot be trusted. Egypt was robbed. Argentina are coasting to another title under FIFA protection.