Mohamed Salah penalty controversy: Ex-refs chief re-analyses Argentina vs Egypt footage amid 'fix' claim

Referee Francois Letexier was right to allow Argentina’s late winner against Egypt to stand in their controversial 3-2 victory.

That is according to former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee, Keith Hackett, who exclusively told Football Insider that Mohamed Salah should not have been awarded a penalty shortly before Enzo Fernandes’ winner.

Egypt were certain that the goal should have been disallowed and a penalty should have been awarded to the North African side.

The manager and players hit out at the officials afterwards for favouring Argentina and insisted the World Cup tie was "fixed".

The former Liverpool forward appeared to be taken down by Julian Alvarez inside the Argentine box before a quick counterattack saw Fernandez net a late winner.

Contact did appear to occur between Salah and Alvarez, but a penalty was not awarded, and VAR did not advise the referee to review the decision.

As a result, Egypt missed out on a historic World Cup quarter-final, with Argentina progressing in their place.

Keith Hackett: Mohamed Salah manufactures the contact

Upon reviewing the footage of the incident, the former referee exclusively told Football Insider: “In the case of Salah, he is looking for contact and manufactures it.

“I thought that the referee in this game delivered an outstanding performance.

“Letexier, the French referee, is one of the world's very best officials.”

Nevertheless, this will do little to quash the Egyptians’ complaints as they remain infuriated with the decisions from the officials during their defeat.

When do Argentina play Switzerland?

Argentina are now set to face Switzerland in the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup after their penalty victory over Colombia.

The two sides played out a 0-0 draw on Tuesday before the Central European nation were able to win the shootout 4-3.

The quarter-final tie is set to take place on Sunday at 2am UK time, with a place in the semi-finals up for grabs. The winner will face either England or Norway.

Argentina have played Switzerland seven times in their history and are unbeaten, winning five times and drawing the other two.

Two of these meetings have came in the World Cup, with the last coming in 2014. This saw Argentina progress thanks to a 1-0 win in extra time.

However, it remains to be seen if Switzerland are able to break this curse and progress into the semi-finals on Sunday as they look to continue this memorable run.