Fifa World Cup: 6 million sign petition to kick out Argentina, citing referee favouritism
Organisers of argentinaout.com claim Fifa and match officials have favoured the defending champions and their captain, Lionel Messi
More than six million people have signed an online petition demanding Argentina’s expulsion from the World Cup, amid allegations of referee favouritism that the team’s manager has dismissed as impossible to pull off in the VAR era.
The petition, hosted on argentinaout.com, went viral recently after calling for the reigning world champions to be disqualified from the tournament in North America.
Its organisers claim that Fifa and match officials have actively favoured Argentina and their captain, Lionel Messi.
“It is obvious that Fifa and the referees are biased toward Lionel Messi and Argentina,” the petition read. “Why should the rest of the world compete when the winner has already been decided? Kick Argentina out of the World Cup and give everyone else a fair chance.”
A week ago, the defending champions pulled off a dramatic comeback against Egypt to advance to the quarter-finals, scoring three goals in the final 13 minutes after trailing 2-0 and seeing Messi miss a first-half penalty.
While Argentina celebrated, Egypt condemned the result as grossly unfair.