{"id":39166,"date":"2026-07-09T12:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39166"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:21:06","slug":"fifa-refereeing-chief-rejects-claims-of-bias-in-argentinas-win-over-egypt","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fifa-refereeing-chief-rejects-claims-of-bias-in-argentinas-win-over-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA refereeing Chief rejects claims of bias in Argentina&#8217;s win over Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) refereeing Chief Pierluigi Collina defended the officiating in Argentina&#8217;s 3-2 victory over Egypt in the World Cup round of 16, dismissing allegations of bias and saying match officials \u200boperated with complete independence.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">In an interview published on<i>\u00a0inside.fifa.com\u00a0<\/i>on Thursday, Collina said \u200ccriticism of referees was part of football, but he condemned the questioning of the officials&#8217; integrity after Egypt complained about the officiating following the defeat.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;Constructive discussion about decisions will always be part of football, but unfounded allegations have \u200bno place in our sport,&#8221; Collina said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;Nobody can question the integrity of the FIFA World \u200bCup match officials. Nobody can claim that FIFA refereeing can be influenced by \u2060anyone, not even by the FIFA President Gianni Infantino.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Collina said that such allegations could provoke threats against \u200breferees and their families.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Egypt exited the tournament but claimed they had been treated unfairly after Argentina overturned a \u200b2-0 deficit to snatch victory with a stoppage-time winner from Enzo Fernandez.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20527,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-39166","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"FIFA refereeing Chief Pierluigi Collina defended the officiating in Argentina's 3-2 victory over Egypt","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39167,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39166\/revisions\/39167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}