The World Cup quarterfinals are set. France versus Morocco. Two teams. Two continents. And the men in the middle will all be from Argentina.
Facundo Tello will lead a full Argentine officiating crew for Friday’s match. That means the referee, both assistant referees, the fourth official, and the VAR officials are all from the same country that is still alive in this tournament on the other side of the bracket. FIFA signed off on this. Read that again.
There are eight teams left. FIFA has 211 member associations. They picked one from Argentina. It’s not a conspiracy theory to ask why.
This isn’t just optics either. Tello has history with Morocco. He refereed their quarterfinal in 2022 and sent off Walid Cheddira. That game ended Morocco’s run. Now they get him again, with three more Argentines looking at their screens.
The other quarterfinal isn’t much better. Spain versus Belgium will be officiated by an English crew. Spain and England are historically friendly nations and could meet in the final. But nobody seems to care about that one because both teams aren’t Argentina.
Argentina has been getting the calls all tournament
Lionel Messi avoided a clear red card in Argentina’s opening match. That’s not opinion. That’s the Laws of the Game. Since then, the team has committed 11.8 fouls per game and has only three yellow cards to show for it. For context, England commits 10.8 fouls per game and has seven yellows. France averages 9.8 fouls and has four yellows. Morocco sits at 12.2 fouls and six yellows. Argentina’s discipline numbers look like an accounting error.
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan didn’t hold back after his team’s controversial loss to Argentina in the round of 16. A potential game-tying goal was ruled out for a foul that happened well before the ball went in. He said there were a lot of things to question on and off the pitch, and suggested FIFA may want to keep the world champion and Messi in the competition.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has precedent for bending rules when it suits him. He restructured eligibility rules to get Folarin Balogun into the tournament, a move that felt more like a favor than a principle. And now this.
Nobody is saying Tello will rig the game. But why hand your critics the ammunition? This is the same organization that spent years scrubbing Sepp Blatter’s stain off the walls. Now they’re running appointments that force everybody to ask the same old questions.
Maybe Friday’s match will be perfectly officiated. Maybe nobody will notice the flags on the officials’ shirts. But that’s not the point. The point is they shouldn’t have given anyone a reason to look.
Leave a Comment