Everyone Is a Referee Until Argentina Win

Open Instagram after any Argentina knockout game and you can write the comments yourself before they load. “Rigged.” “FIFA’s favorite child.” “Messi the penalty merchant.” “The script continues.” Scroll X, same energy. Open Reddit, same thread, longer paragraphs.

Here is what you will almost never find in those same comments: any mention of what happened to Argentina’s players in the 85 minutes before the call everyone is angry about. The studs, the shirt pulls, the tactical fouls every time a move started. That part of the game apparently does not exist. Outrage online has a very selective memory, and nowhere is that more obvious than with this Argentina team.

I want to actually walk through it, because the pattern is not subtle once you look at it. And with Argentina facing Spain in the final this Sunday, the discourse machine is already warming up.

What actually happened in the Egypt game?

Argentina beat Egypt 3-2 in the knockout rounds of this 2026 World Cup, and if you only read social media you would think it was decided entirely in the VAR room.

The facts: Egypt led, and had a Mostafa Zico goal in the 62nd minute disallowed after a VAR review found a foul in the build-up. Late on, Egypt appealed for a penalty when Hamdy Fathy went down, the referee waved it away, and Argentina went up the other end and scored the winner in the 92nd minute, capping three goals in 13 minutes. Egypt’s football association filed an official complaint about the refereeing and the use of VAR, and even called for the referee to be sent home from the tournament.

Egypt’s frustration is understandable. Losing a two-goal cushion to a 13-minute collapse hurts, and a federation is allowed to ask questions. Some of those questions are even fair: pundits debated on air whether the disallowed goal was within VAR’s remit at all.

But notice what the internet did with it. The story instantly became “FIFA rescued Argentina.” Not “Argentina scored three times in 13 minutes against a team that had every reason to park the bus.” Not a word about how Egypt defended for large stretches, or what the game looked like from the Argentine side of the tackles. The comeback, one of the great knockout comebacks in recent World Cup memory, became a footnote to a conspiracy theory.

And the Switzerland quarter-final?

Then came Switzerland in Kansas City, and the outrage machine got its sequel.

The flashpoint: the referee initially called a foul by Leandro Paredes on Breel Embolo and booked the Argentine. VAR reviewed it under FIFA’s new protocols, determined that Embolo had simulated the contact, rescinded the Paredes booking, and Embolo, already on a yellow, was sent off for the dive. Switzerland were level at 1-1 at the time through Dan Ndoye’s 67th-minute equalizer. Argentina eventually won 3-1 with extra-time goals from Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez.

Swiss coach Murat Yakin was furious, fans called the officiating a disaster, and social media declared the game “destroyed” by the decision. Fine. It was a harsh, novel, uncomfortable application of a new rule, and reasonable people can dislike how it played out.

But strip the shirts off the incident for a second. A player simulated a foul to get an opponent booked, the technology caught it, and the punishment for simulation on a second yellow is a red. If VAR had done that to an Argentine, and specifically if it had done it to Messi, do we honestly believe the same accounts would be posting about the sanctity of the game? They would be celebrating it as long-overdue justice against the “diving Argentines.” The rule is only a scandal when it bites the other way.

Where were these experts during the Battle of Lusail?

This is the part that gives the game away, because we have a controlled experiment from the last World Cup.

Qatar 2022, quarter-final, Argentina against the Netherlands. The match is now literally named the Battle of Lusail. Eighteen yellow cards, a FIFA World Cup record. The previous record for cautions in a World Cup match was nine. Argentina players were fouled relentlessly, the game descended into shoving matches, and Messi spent the evening being clattered between moments of magic.

Where was the flood of “protect the artists” posts? Where were the referee-expert threads dissecting every uncalled foul on an Argentine ankle? They did not exist, because Argentina survived it. They won on penalties, so the discourse moved on to Messi’s “Qué mirás, bobo” clip instead. The kicking itself was filed under “that’s knockout football.”

That is the asymmetry in one image: when Argentina absorb a record-breaking amount of fouling, it is passion and intensity. When a call goes for Argentina, it is corruption.

Is Messi actually protected by referees?

The “FIFA princess” line assumes referees wrap Messi in cotton wool. The numbers say the opposite: he is one of the most fouled players in the history of the tournament.

By the end of the 2022 World Cup, Opta had counted 65 fouls suffered by Messi in World Cup matches, the second most of any player in their records going back to 1966. The only man ahead of him is Diego Maradona, another Argentine, whose 152 fouls suffered remain the most ever logged at the World Cup. FIFA’s own tallies put Messi’s career count even higher. Being kicked is practically an Argentine number 10’s job description, and it has been for forty years.

This is the detail the “princess” crowd has exactly backwards. A protected player does not need to be fouled 60-plus times across World Cups. Opponents foul Messi precisely because it has always been the cheapest way to slow Argentina down, and referees have historically let far more of it go than they have punished.

And if FIFA were writing scripts for Argentina, somebody forgot to send Saudi Arabia the pages in 2022. Champions of a “scripted” tournament do not open it by losing to a 50-1 outsider. Scripts also do not usually require your captain to drag a team through two penalty shootouts.

So why do fans do this?

Here is my honest read, and this is the opinion part, so take it as one fan’s view.

A lot of this is not really about refereeing. It is about idols. Football fandom online is organized into camps, and for a meaningful chunk of fans, their favorite player’s legacy is a personal possession. Messi winning the 2022 World Cup closed most versions of the greatest-of-all-time debate, and for people emotionally invested in a different answer, that is not a football result, it is a personal loss.

You cannot argue with what Messi does on the pitch. This tournament alone he has eight goals, sits top of the scoring charts, and just set up both goals in the 2-1 semi-final comeback against England, at 39 years old. So the argument moves to the only remaining territory: legitimacy. If you cannot say “he is not that good,” you say “it was handed to him.” The penalty in the final was soft. The referees favor them. FIFA needs the Messi story. Every call becomes evidence, every non-call disappears.

It is the oldest move in fan psychology: when your idol falls short of someone, the gap must be explained by something other than football. Nobody wants to post “the player I grew up worshipping was slightly worse at this.” “The system is rigged” feels much better, and the algorithm will hand you a thousand people agreeing within the hour.

The tell is the inconsistency. The same account calling Embolo’s red card a robbery was posting laughing emojis at the Battle of Lusail. The same person demanding VAR review every Argentina goal did not want VAR anywhere near their own team’s handball last week. That is not refereeing analysis. That is fandom wearing a referee costume.

What would consistent outrage even look like?

Simple: it would show up before the result is known, and it would show up for both sides.

If you think VAR overreached on Egypt’s disallowed goal, you should be equally loud about the fouls on Argentine players that went unpunished in the same match. If the Embolo red card offends you, the simulation that caused it should offend you too. If you believe Messi gets soft penalties, the 65-plus documented fouls on him deserve at least one of your posts. Consistency is boring, which is why it does not trend.

Argentina might beat Spain on Sunday, or Spain might be too good, they have been the best team in Europe for three years. Either way, I already know what the comments will say if Argentina win. Something will be a scandal, a robbery, a script. It will get half a million likes.

And Argentina will do what this generation of Argentina has done through the kicks, the record card counts, the two-goal deficits and the penalty shootouts: pull through anyway, and let everyone else argue about the referee.

Quick answers

Did Argentina cheat against Egypt at the 2026 World Cup? No. Argentina won 3-2 with three goals in the final 13 minutes. Egypt’s FA formally complained about two VAR-related decisions, a disallowed Egyptian goal and a waved-away penalty appeal, and that complaint is their right. A federation disputing calls is not evidence of cheating, and neutral analysts were split on both incidents.

Why was Breel Embolo sent off against Argentina? He was on a yellow card when a VAR review found he had simulated a foul by Leandro Paredes. The original booking shown to Paredes was rescinded, Embolo received a second yellow for the simulation, and a second yellow means red.

Is Messi one of the most fouled players in World Cup history? Yes. Opta counted 65 fouls suffered by Messi in World Cup play through 2022, second only to Diego Maradona’s 152 in records dating to 1966. FIFA’s own count puts his total around 75.

What was the Battle of Lusail? The 2022 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and the Netherlands, which produced a World Cup record 18 yellow cards. Argentina won on penalties after a 2-2 draw.

These are my personal views as a fan who enjoys writing. The match facts are drawn from public reporting; the interpretation is mine alone.