Analysis of Football Match Referee Decisions

Uh...

How are you, Captain Farouk? And greetings to Captain Magdy Tolba and Captain Tamer Begato.

Welcome, peace be upon you. Good evening, Captain Mohamed. Welcome, Captain.

Captain, as... as... of course, as one of the Egyptian people, honestly, I say hard luck.

And we of course hoped Egypt would continue, based on the great effort that is honestly being made and has been made.

And bad luck happened in the end through the goals, but some feel that the match referee was honestly very biased against Egypt.

I mean, through the match and through analyzing the cases that might have been controversial, how do you see things going?

Look, Captain Farouk, in the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, of course our hopes after 2-0 were that the match was almost over.

And for us to concede three goals in a quarter of an hour, that is what... what caused the shock.

But let's speak refereeing-wise and logically.

The referee, this same referee with whom we were leading 2-0 until the 80th minute.

The first goal scored by Ziko, yes, okay, was during the attacking phase of play, or what is called the APP.

There was a foul committed by Marwan Attia against the Argentina forward, and referring to VAR...

or referring to VAR in this case, the referee was right to do so.

Yes, but Captain, I am actually discussing this with you because we are following the World Cup.

There are challenges where it's very clear that the referees have instructions to let them go.

So is this one of those challenges that... you must have followed and seen, Captain?

Let's say that in a case like this...

as long as VAR summoned the referee, showed him a replay, and made it clear to him...

the referee cannot go back and say, 'I saw this, but I won't call it.'

So VAR summoned the referee... I mean, was it a pull or a stomp on the foot, Captain?

No, there was a stomp. But just to connect this case...

with Captain Mohamed Salah's case. Yes, go ahead, Captain, yes, exactly, go ahead.

Here, at the moment of the stamp, the ball was in the possession of the Argentine attacker.

Therefore, he still had the ball, and it was still in his possession.

Now, let's go back to Mohamed Salah's play that came after, and why, when he scored the third goal, the referee didn't consult VAR?

Because the Argentine defender inside the 18 managed to tackle Captain Mohamed Salah, and the ball went behind him.

What happened after that was natural contact, which did not warrant a VAR review.

It's just out of shock that we keep saying, "Why did you call it here and not there?" It doesn't work that way.

Each case is different. The difference in Argentina's case is that the ball remained in the attacker's possession after the stamp.

Before the contact between Mohamed Salah and the Argentine defender, the ball had already gone behind Captain Mohamed Salah; it was already taken from him.

So, that was natural contact.

But for our play, or our goal that was disallowed, was the ball in the possession of the Argentine player when his foot was stepped on?

There was a stamp on the foot, and that's the main thing VAR showed the referee several times during the on-field review, the stamp.

Not the pulling? Because there was also pulling in this, Captain.

No, but the stamp is clearer. The stamp is clearer in this case.

And when VAR replayed it for him, it focused heavily on the stamp, showing it once from a freeze-frame, which is the point of contact, as we say.

And showed it to him in real-time and slow motion several times, so disallowing the goal here is a correct decision after reviewing VAR.

There was no… there was no need for him to go to VAR for an on-field review, or as we say, refer to VAR after Argentina's third goal.

I mean, with this same referee, we were winning 2-0 until the 80th minute.

What about another play, Captain? Wasn't Marmoush being pulled inside the 18-yard box?

Hamdi Fathi? Hamdi Fathi.

Hamdi Fathi, yes, there was pulling, but it was inconsequential pulling.

What do you mean by "inconsequential pulling," Captain? Yes, inconsequential pulling that didn't affect the player's ability…

Whether he scores a goal or gains possession of the ball, and in FIFA they don't pay attention to these contacts or this ineffective pulling.

We've seen this happen several times, and yesterday it happened in the Spain vs Portugal match with Ronaldo during a set piece, and the referee didn't pay attention to it.

Hmm.

Okay, in general, Captain, I mean, you also… Go ahead, Captain. You will understand me and understand my question.

As a… as a… as a football player, and you know, can a referee restrict one team over another on the pitch through certain fouls?

Through certain locations in awarding fouls, do you think today's referee did that or not, Captain?

No, no, he didn't do that. He didn't do that because he could have, in several plays…