Ex-FIFA referee responds to 'corruption' and 'fix' claims after re-analysing Argentina vs Egypt controversy

Gianni Infantino and Pierluigi Collina can rightly deny any claims of "corruption" at the 2026 World Cup this summer.

That is according to former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee, Keith Hackett, who exclusively told Football Insider that the laws of football lend themselves to subjective decisions all the time.

This comes after Egypt's Mostafa Ziko claimed that it is "clear that this tournament has been fixed" following his team's 3-2 defeat to Argentina on Tuesday, 7 July.

Hossam Hassan's side believed that Mohamed Salah should have been awarded a penalty in the build-up to Enzo Fernandez's winner, and that was just one incident.

Ziko saw one of his goals ruled out for a foul in the build-up, with VAR asking referee Francois Letexier to review a clip of Lisandro Martinez's heel on the halfway line.

Nonetheless, it is Lionel Messi's Argentina who will face Switzerland in the quarter-finals, and the tournament organisers are denying any wrongdoing.

'There's no corruption; it's not fixed'

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Hackett has heavily disputed the emerging claims, having been listed as a FIFA official between 1981 and 1991.

"One area that I would dispute very strongly are claims that games are being 'fixed' at World Cup-level, or any level really," he said.

"There are sufficient checks and balances, and a filtering system, to ensure that this doesn't happen. The laws of the game are subjective.

"I could get 100 referees in a room, all looking at the same incident, and not necessarily get 100 referees to agree on the outcome. That's football.

"Those are the laws of the game. [Pierluigi] Collina worked hard in training and educating referees to achieve a degree of consistency in applying the laws.

"As a referee, I wouldn't want a goal of that quality [Mostafa Ziko's] to be ruled out. I wouldn't want VAR to come in, but once VAR has gone through that forensic check, we see a really good goal ruled out.

"In the same game, we have the alleged foul on Salah. Why didn't VAR bring the referee to the screen to check this decision? I want them to stick with what they believe, rather than go with VAR.

"So, there's no corruption for me, it's not fixed. It's not even on my radar. But as the former head of the PGMOL, I can tell you that we've put a lot of systems in place to ensure the integrity of our referees."

What has Pierluigi Collina said about the claims?

Collina is having none of the claims against his referees this summer, respinding very strongly to the allegations after Argentina and Egypt's five-goal thriller.

In a statement, he said: "Nobody can claim that FIFA Refereeing can be influenced by anyone. Match officials make honest decisions.

"And, just like players and coaches, they always try to do their best."

There will always be conspiracies, especially when it comes Messi and Argentina, or even Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal, but Collina has rightly shut down the allegations.