FIFA only have themselves to blame for Argentina World Cup conspiracy nonsense run amok

If you spent any time in the murky depths of social media in the past couple of weeks, you might have noticed the collective meltdown over the supposedly favourable refereeing Argentina have enjoyed at the 2026 World Cup.

Put your phone down, touch grass and you ought to recognise it for the wild mass hysteria that it is. Like peering across at the Dancing Plague of 1518 from a neighbouring village. Are those people…alright?

Step out of the engagement-bait monetised blue-tick bubble, featuring some utterly bizarre invocations of Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel that are as nonsensical as they are antisemitic (the Venn diagram between Cristiano Ronaldo fans and the manosphere is a flat circle, isn’t it?), and you’ll see that this conspiracy theory has broken containment out of the swamp.

The BBC have wheeled out their chief rules nerd Dale Johnson to ask ‘Are Argentina being treated favourably at the World Cup?’

This is probably not the coverage that FIFA had envisaged for their flagship tournament, but they must take their fair share of the blame for suspicion and speculation spreading like wildfire.

Having already blurred the boundaries of its own disciplinary process, FIFA should hardly be surprised that every contentious refereeing decision is now met with accusations of something more sinister.

But all of the noise around Argentina ignores the fact that if you break down their campaign so far, there haven’t been any egregious officiating errors. Nothing that would have PGMOL issuing a grovelling apology had they happened in the Premier League.

Nothing as downright dumbfounding and inexplicable as the penalty Kylian Mbappe wasn’t awarded against Senegal, or the penalty Ghana didn’t get against England. Imagine if those incidents had involved a player in an Argentina shirt.

This is the problem when you try to string together a narrative from disparate events. FIFA are pro-England, apparently? And they like Senegal, but they don’t like Ghana. And, hang on, they’re anti-France too. Just ignore the two penalties Les Bleus were given in the last World Cup final.

Try to start putting it all together, Charlie Kelly style, and hopefully you’ll realise how ridiculous this all is.

The incompetence of referees, including the video assistants, makes a lot more sense than Gianni Infantino having a quiet word in their ears.

Lionel Messi might have been sent off for raking his studs down the calf of an opposition player in the opener, true. But replays showed that there wasn’t a great deal of force in it. Call it an orange card.

Seen ’em given, sure, but we’ve also seen players get away with similar offences. Including some with worse against Argentina in this very tournament.

Leaving aside the sh*tshow that followed Folarin Balogun’s red card (for now), the fact that the original decision was so controversial and contested – not only by clueless Americans like Donald Trump – is evidence that such incidents aren’t cut and dried.

What else is there?

Egypt had a goal disallowed after winning the ball with a clear foul on Lisandro Martinez.

They then had two penalty appeals waved away immediately before Argentina’s late match-winner. Replays showed them to be utterly laughable.

Switzerland striker Breel Embolo was sent off thanks to a weird VAR quirk that we’ve already seen used in this tournament to give Miguel Almiron a yellow card. Poor Miggy would suffer from another new rule in the next game.

So what are we left with here, exactly?

Messi clearly got away with not being booked against Algeria.

And Argentina, albeit not to the same extent as Paraguay against France, have probably benefited from some fairly lenient refereeing. They could have easily racked up more bookings, as the BBC have pointed out.

Argentina might have received a few more yellow cards, then. That’s it? Get Oliver Stone on the phone this instance. We’ve got the screenplay for the next JFK.

Back to people who live on planet earth, who presumably don’t spend their time having their brains turned to mush by Elon Musk’s X, this Argentina ‘scandal’ has been met with the collective shrug it deserves.

“I honestly don’t understand why you ask me about the controversy surrounding the referee in the Argentina vs. Egypt match. Where did that even come from?” said Spain manager Luis de la Fuente.

“I watched the game and I thought the referee got everything right. I’d actually like to congratulate him because every decision he made was spot on.”

France manager Didier Deschamps concurred, praising the match officials from the Argentina vs Egypt game:

“We have to deal with it. I trust the referees. Our opponent is Morocco, not the referee. Let’s hope ours are as good as Monsieur Letexier was.”

Much had been made of an Argentinian officiating team being at the helm for France’s quarter-final, but the match passed by without controversy. Just throwing us off the scent, that dastardly lot.

READ: France to walk World Cup? Only a fool would bet against England

On the other hand, Richard Keys smells something fishy:

‘Is no one else going to say it? I have been since its introduction – the best & easiest way to fix a football match is with VAR. It’s goes on in plain sight – ask Egypt.’

Keysey continued on in the following days, tweeting:

‘Pierluigi Collina insists no one is trying to get Argentina into another final. Ok. That’s it then. We have to believe him. Evertonians remember Collina’s last ever game very well. Did we ever find out why he disallowed Ferguson’s goal?’

As always with Keys, there’s a semblance of a point there. But not the one he thinks he’s making.

“Of course, constructive discussion about decisions will always be part of football, but unfounded allegations have no place in our sport,” FIFA refereeing chief Collina had said in an official media briefing.

“Nobody can question the integrity of the FIFA World Cup match officials. When this happens, it may provoke reactions that lead to threats against them and their families. This is not right.”

He’s not wrong. If you honestly believe the officials are compromised, there’s no point investing in any of this.

Ultimately, there’s no evidence for that belief. No match official at this World Cup has done anything to justify accusations of impropriety, however contentious certain decisions have been.

And yet FIFA now face a crisis of legitimacy all of its own making thanks to their meddling.

It has opened the door to swivel-eyed conspiracism and social media hysteria by repeatedly showing that regulations can appear negotiable, through the handling of Folarin Balogun and Cristiano Ronaldo’s suspensions.

If FIFA are willing to step in and make the world’s most marketable superstar available for the group stage, or ensure one of the hosts’ key players can feature, is it really such a leap to believe they’d also lean on officials to tilt the scales?

That question leads us down a dangerous path, and it stinks.

We’re sure Gianni Infantino is delighted that the four seeded teams, the top four ranked nations, have made it to the semi-finals. That they can sell those games on Kylian Mbappe vs Lamine Yamal and Harry Kane vs Lionel Messi.

If you wanted to silence accusations of a tournament being stage-managed, this probably wasn’t the way to do it. Cue the X-Files theme.

READ MORE: England f***ed by the World Cup schedule even if they beat Messi’s Argentina…