The referee of the Egypt-Argentina match refereed two matches in the Emirates last season

The arbitral decisions of French international referee François Letxer, who officiated the match between Egypt and Argentina in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup, sparked widespread controversy, following the Argentine national team’s 3-2 victory after coming back from a two-goal deficit without a response.

The Egyptian team’s objections focused on the decision to cancel Zico’s goal in the 58th minute due to a violation before scoring, a decision that the Egyptian side considered influential in depriving the “Pharaohs” of achieving the first qualification in their history to the quarter-finals.

A statistic monitored by “Emirates Today” on the official website of the Emirates Professional League revealed that Letxir managed two matches in the local competitions during the 2025-2026 season. The first brought together Al-Wasl and Al-Jazira in the 13th round of the Professional League and ended with Al-Wasl winning 1-0, and the second was between Al-Nasr and Al-Ain in the semi-finals of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Cup, and Al-Ain won 3-0.

The match between Al-Wasl and Al-Jazira saw the referee show 8 yellow cards (6 for Al-Jazira and 2 for Al-Wasl) and the match was devoid of red cards, while the match between Al-Nasr and Al-Ain witnessed the announcement of three yellow cards (2 for Al-Ain and one for Al-Nasr) and the match did not witness any red cards.

The confrontation between Egypt and Argentina is the third appearance of Taksar in the 2026 World Cup, after he previously managed the matches of Ecuador and Côte d’Ivoire, Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde.