Egypt manager's hand gesture explained before receiving yellow card in World Cup defeat
Egypt's head coach Hossam Hassan’s gesture during their game with Argentina in the World Cup has finally been explained.
The match that saw the Egyptians lose 3-2 after coming up against Lionel Messi during the round of 16 clash, has been heavily talked about.
But not when it comes to the scoreboard.
Instead, people want to know what was going on when Hassan appeared to communicate with his players by using an X-gesture with both hands.
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The scene occurred at the Atlanta Stadium, as a number of Egyptian players were handed yellow cards by the referee.
Even one of the team’s staff members was red carded, and VAR came out at the very end.
It was around this time that Hassan raised his arms in an X in front of the ref, seemingly trying to reveal a message without using words.
But what could it have been?
Despite making the gesture, the referee didn’t seem to pay any attention to it, and now it has been revealed that it may have been claiming racial abuse.
According to FIFA, ‘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.’
If shown to the referee, a three-step process will begin so that they can investigate the claims of racism.
Per FIFA’s website, once the gesture is recognized, ‘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, rather than doing the above, Hassan was shown a yellow card and the match continued.
While it’s not clear why Hassan was carded, the game included many moments people were unhappy with.
Such as VAR claiming Lisandro Martinez had been illegally brought down by an Egyptian player, and took a goal from the team.
Ahmad Yousef, an Egyptian football expert, told BBC Radio 5 Live just how the move made fans feel: "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 himself has since spoken about the match, which he says shows inconsistencies.
According to The Athletic, Hassan said: “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 reached out to FIFA for comment.
Britt Jones