The Argentine Football Association is investigating a suspected cyberattack after emails were sent from one of its official accounts to journalists around the world, describing Argentina’s dramatic 3-2 World Cup round-of-16 victory over Egypt as a act of “corrupt refereeing” and calling for justice.
The emails, signed by a group identifying themselves as “All Egyptian Cyber Warriors,” carried the subject line “SYSTEM HACKED: UNFAIR DECISION” and opened with the phrase “the robbery will not go unnoticed.” The message described the match as “90 minutes of unfair refereeing” and warned: “If there is no justice on the pitch, do not expect peace in your networks.”
The AFA confirmed it had detected the possible sending of unauthorised emails from one of its institutional accounts, stating that the messages were “neither generated nor authorised” by its staff. The federation said it was working with its IT department to establish the origin and scope of the breach, and asked anyone who received the messages to disregard them, particularly if they contained links, attachments or requests for personal information. By Friday, an AFA spokesperson indicated the situation had been resolved.
The backdrop to the attack is one of the most contentious matches of the tournament. Argentina had trailed 2-0 in Atlanta, with goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Zico putting Egypt firmly in control, before an extraordinary late comeback. Cristian Romero pulled one back with 11 minutes remaining, Lionel Messi equalised five minutes later, and Enzo Fernandez completed the turnaround two minutes into stoppage time to send Argentina into the quarter-finals against Switzerland.
Egypt’s fury at the result centred on two specific incidents: a goal ruled out by VAR in the 60th minute, and what their camp believed was a clear foul in Argentina’s penalty area moments before Fernandez scored the winner. The Egyptian Football Association went as far as formally requesting FIFA remove French referee Francois Letexier and his team of officials from the tournament, alleging bias in favour of the defending champions.
Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan did not hold back. “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition,” he said after the match. “Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running. The world champion received support at every level.” Hassan, who has repeatedly used his public platform to express support for Palestine throughout the tournament, added that he would “never watch the World Cup again, because there’s no justice in this competition.” The hacked emails also referenced his stance, claiming he had been “targeted for standing with Palestine.”
Zico echoed his manager’s sentiment, suggesting after the game that the trophy appeared to be “directed towards Argentina.”
