Controversy over FIFA’s alleged favouritism towards Lionel Messi and Argentina refuses to die down, even as the tournament heads into its business end.Ahead of the defending champions’ semi-final clash against bitter rivals England, an online petition has been launched demanding the three-time winners’ expulsion from the tournament, the South China Morning Post reported. With 48 teams, the 2026 edition is the largest FIFA World Cup ever and the first to be jointly hosted by three countries (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) .The petition, hosted on argentinaout.com, went viral recently after calling for Argentina to be disqualified from the competition.As of Wednesday evening, the petition had garnered more than 10 million (one crore) signatures, surpassing its target of 10 million signatures.
‘Kick Argentina Out’ petition
The organisers of the petition allege that FIFA and match officials have “actively favoured” Messi and Argentina.“It is obvious that FIFA and the referees are biased toward Lionel Messi and Argentina,” the petition read. “Why should the rest of the world compete when the winner has already been decided? Kick Argentina out of the World Cup and give everyone else a fair chance.”Allegations that football’s global governing body is favouring the South American side gathered pace after Argentina’s opening match against Algeria. Critics pointed to an incident in which Messi, who captains the team and is expected to be playing in his final World Cup at the age of 39, escaped without even a yellow card for a foul, arguing that any other player would likely have been sent off.The controversy intensified after Argentina’s Round of 32 clash against Egypt. The defending champions staged a dramatic comeback, scoring three goals in the final 13 minutes to overturn a 2-0 deficit despite Messi missing a first-half penalty.While the holders celebrated, Egypt described the result as “grossly unfair”.The North Africans argued that a goal they scored was disallowed following a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review for an earlier foul, while Argentina’s late winner was allowed to stand despite an alleged foul on captain Mohamed Salah. Egypt maintained that VAR should have reviewed the incident and disallowed the goal, awarding them a penalty instead.Egypt manager Hossam Hassan did not hold back after the match.“I’ll say what I think, regardless of the consequences. This has clearly been rigged, and everyone has seen it. If they want them to win so badly, why are they inviting everyone to participate in the World Cup?” he said.Hassan further alleged that FIFA wanted to keep Messi in the tournament.“FIFA promotes ‘Fair Play’, but we didn’t see it on the pitch … without those mistakes, the result would’ve been different,” he added.Ahead of the quarter-final against Switzerland, in which another refereeing decision went Argentina’s way and fuelled further criticism, coach Lionel Scaloni had dismissed the allegations, arguing that favouritism was “next to impossible” in the VAR era.“There are people who don’t like to see Argentina win. These comments only inspire my team to play better football,” Scaloni said, adding that accusations against Argentina were nothing new.“In 1986, they also said Argentina was getting unfair advantages. This is nothing new for us,” he said, referring to Argentina’s World Cup triumph – its second title – in Mexico.“With VAR and all the technology we have today, it’s extremely difficult to help anyone. There is no room for different interpretations.”Scaloni also blamed social media for amplifying the controversy.“But there is no favouritism. On the contrary, it’s very difficult to help anyone nowadays. I don’t know, maybe many years ago this kind of thing was possible, I’m not sure, but today, it’s next to impossible,” he said.The winners of the Argentina-England semi-final will face European champions Spain in the final. Spain secured their place with a 2-0 victory over France, the 1998 and 2018 champions and 2022 runners-up, ending the hopes of a side that had been widely tipped to win a third World Cup title after an undefeated run to the last four.Both Spain and England are bidding for their second World Cup title, and their first in 16 and 60 years, respectively.
