The recent football match between Egypt and Argentina at the World Cup has sparked ongoing debates on social media. A new hypothesis has emerged suggesting that Argentina's team victory might have been influenced by a large bet of $1.8 billion.
The recent football match between Egypt and Argentina at the World Cup has sparked ongoing debates on social media. A new hypothesis has emerged suggesting that Argentina's team victory might have been influenced by a large bet of $1.8 billion.
Argentina defeated Egypt 3-2 on July 7th at Atlanta Stadium (officially known as Mercedes-Benz Stadium). However, allegations of corruption have arisen around the match from FIFA due to perceived unfair refereeing.
Activists protested against French referee François Lattesse, claiming he was biased in favor of Argentina and ignored this team's mistakes during the Round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. During the game, the French referee declined to consult the VAR system to check what was described as an obvious error by the Argentine team.
In addition to clear errors, the Egyptian federation insists that they should have been awarded a valid goal and a penalty kick, which they believe should have been credited to the Egyptian team. Following significant outcry directed at French referee François Lattesse, who received thousands of comments about the injustice of the refereeing during the Argentina versus Egypt match, he deleted his Instagram account.
An Egyptian activist published a video clip claiming that Argentina won thanks to an $1.8 billion bet placed with FIFA, which triggered widespread debate about deliberate bias in favor of the South American country. The activist stated that a FIFA employee told her about numerous violations committed for profit.
She said: 'Look, you won't believe what I'm about to tell you. Where I work, a woman went into a store to buy something and told me she worked for FIFA.' She then continued: 'In the last 3 minutes of the World Cup match Argentina-Egypt, there was a bet on Argentina's victory worth $1.8 billion.'
The activist added that if the Argentine team won, FIFA would earn more money, whereas if Egypt won, the bettors would gain more. She concluded: 'They must have made them win to make more money; can you imagine.'