“Hossam Hassan is innocent.” Haitham’s participation threatened Egypt with a 3-0 loss in the World Cup!

A source within the Egyptian national team delegation revealed that the absence of winger Haitham Hassan from the group stage matches in the 2026 World Cup was not a technical decision by the technical staff led by Hossam Hassan, but rather came due to the failure to complete the procedures for changing his sports nationality with the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) before the start of the tournament.

Haitham Hassan’s brilliance during Egypt’s match against Australia in the round of 16 sparked a wide wave of controversy in Egyptian sports circles, after he gave a remarkable performance in his first appearance in the tournament, which prompted fans and analysts to question the reasons for his absence from the group stage matches, despite his presence on the national team’s roster.

Criticism was directed at technical director Hossam Hassan, and some accused him of not giving the player the opportunity to participate, preferring other players in his position to him, including Ahmed Sayed “Zizou.”

The source, who requested to remain anonymous, confirmed to Emirates Al-Youm that the real reason is due to legal procedures related to the player’s international eligibility.

He explained that Haitham Hassan, who holds dual Egyptian and French nationalities, had previously represented French national teams in the senior stages, which required obtaining official approval from the International Federation to change his sporting nationality before representing the Egyptian national team.

He added that the Egyptian Football Association obtained the player’s Egyptian passport and included him in the final list for the World Cup, but the procedures for approving the change of his sports nationality with FIFA had not been completed at that time.

He pointed out that Egyptian Federation officials discovered before the start of the tournament that fielding the player before approving the change in his sporting nationality would have subjected the team to the penalty of considering the match a loss with a score of (3-0), which led to his exclusion from the Belgium and New Zealand matches.

He continued that the Egyptian Federation contacted its French counterpart to obtain the documents required to complete the file, before sending them to the International Federation, which later issued a decision approving the change of sports nationality after the New Zealand match, which made the player eligible to participate as of the last match in the group stage against Iran.

He added that the technical staff preferred not to include Haitham Hassan against Iran, after the International Federation’s electronic system continued to show his French nationality, which raised fears that the procedures would not be completed.

He explained that the Egyptian Federation received official confirmations from FIFA officials that the player has become eligible to participate, and that failure to update his data in the electronic system does not mean that his change of sports nationality has not been approved, but rather is due to the delay in updating the system.

Haitham Hassan participated for the first time against Australia in the round of 16, and gave a remarkable performance that reopened the door to questions about the reasons for his absence from the first round, before the administrative reasons that prevented his participation since the beginning of the tournament became clear later.