The controversy over FIFA’s alleged bias towards Lionel Messi and Argentina is not letting up as the tournament draws to a close.An online petition has been launched calling for the three-time winners to be expelled from the tournament, ahead of the defending champions’ semi-final clash against rivals England, the South China Morning Post reports. With 48 teams, the 2026 edition is the largest FIFA World Cup to date and the first to be jointly hosted by three countries (Canada, Mexico and the United States).A petition hosted on argentinaout.com recently went viral demanding Argentina be disqualified from the competition.As of Wednesday evening, the petition had garnered over 10 million (one crore) signatures, surpassing its target of 10 million signatures.
‘Exit Argentina’ petition
Organizers of the petition allege that FIFA and match officials have “actively sided” with Messi and Argentina.“It is clear that FIFA and the referees are biased against Lionel Messi and Argentina,” the petition said. “Why should the rest of the world compete when the winner is already decided? Take Argentina out of the World Cup and give everyone else a fair chance.”Accusations that football’s global governing body was favoring the South American team intensified after Argentina’s opening match against Algeria. Critics pointed to an incident in which Messi, who captains the team and is expected to play his final World Cup at the age of 39, escaped without being shown a yellow card for a foul, arguing that any other player would likely have been sent off.The controversy intensified after Argentina’s clash against Egypt in the Round of 32. The defending champions staged a dramatic comeback by scoring three goals in the last 13 minutes to take a 2-0 lead after Messi missed a penalty in the first half.While the holders celebrated, Egypt described the result as “grossly unfair”.The North Africans argued that the goal they scored was disallowed after 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 said VAR should have reviewed the incident and disallowed the goal, instead awarding them a penalty.Egypt manager Hossam Hassan did not back down after the match.“I will say what I think regardless of the result. It is clearly rigged and everyone has seen it. If they want to win so badly, why are they inviting everyone to attend 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 field… without those mistakes, the result would have been different,” he said.Before the quarter-final against Switzerland, in which another refereeing decision went in Argentina’s favor and led to further criticism, coach Lionel Scaloni rejected the allegations, arguing that bias was “almost impossible” in the VAR era.Scaloni said, “There are people who don’t like to see Argentina win. These comments only motivate my team to play better football.” He said the allegations against Argentina are nothing new.“In 1986, he also said that Argentina was getting an unfair advantage. This is nothing new for us,” he said, referring to Argentina’s World Cup victory in Mexico – its second title.“With VAR and all the technology we have today, it is extremely difficult to help anyone. There is no room for different interpretations.”Scaloni also blamed social media for exacerbating the controversy.“But there is no favoritism. On the contrary, it is very difficult to help anyone these days.” I don’t know, maybe many years ago this kind of thing was possible, I’m not sure, but today, it’s almost 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 win over 1998 and 2018 champions and 2022 runners-up France, ending the hopes of a team that was widely tipped to win a third World Cup title after going undefeated in the last four.Spain and England are both bidding for their second World Cup title, and their first in 16 and 60 years respectively.