The gesture made by Egypt’s head coach, Hossam Hassan, during the World Cup match against Argentina has finally been deciphered.
In this round of 16 match, Egypt battled fiercely yet succumbed to a 3-2 defeat while facing the formidable Lionel Messi. However, the scoreboard is not what has captured everyone’s attention.
Instead, fans and analysts are curious about the moment when Hassan signaled an X-gesture with both hands towards his players.
This incident took place at the Atlanta Stadium, amid a flurry of yellow cards given to Egyptian players by the referee.
Additionally, a member of the Egyptian team’s staff was shown a red card, and the VAR system was called into action towards the game’s end.
During this tumultuous period, Hassan raised his arms in an X-shape in front of the referee, seemingly conveying a message without speaking.
The question remains: what was he trying to communicate?
Despite the gesture, the referee seemed to ignore it, and it has since been suggested that the gesture was meant to indicate racial abuse.
FIFA reports that “following its unanimous approval at the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, on 17 May 2024, a global crossed arms gesture to signal racist abuse is now part of football protocol at FIFA tournaments.”
According to FIFA, once the gesture is recognized by the referee, a three-step protocol is initiated to address claims of racism.
FIFA’s website states, “we will pause, suspend and abandon games in cases of racism, introducing a global standard gesture for players to communicate racist incidents and referees to signal the implementation of the three-step procedure.”
However, instead of following this process, Hassan received a yellow card, and the match proceeded.
The reason behind Hassan’s yellow card remains unclear, but the match featured several contentious decisions.
For instance, VAR determined that Lisandro Martinez was illegally tackled by an Egyptian player, nullifying a goal for Egypt.
Ahmad Yousef, an Egyptian football analyst, expressed the fans’ feelings on BBC Radio 5 Live: “Huge amounts of disappointment across Egypt. There is so much inconsistency at the moment with VAR and decisions and how far you go back to pull a decision.”
Hassan spoke about the controversial match, highlighting what he perceived as inconsistencies.
The Athletic quoted Hassan saying: “We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out and a second (incident) that should have been checked for a penalty for us was not even checked by the VAR. A second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.
“There seems to have been pressure on the Argentinian side on the referee that has brought about this outcome.
“Life is unfair. The world is unfair. OK, but why isn’t there any fairness in sports? I’m not convinced by this outcome and by the way things unfolded in this match.”
UNILAD has reached out to FIFA for their comments on the situation.