The Argentine Football Federation (AFA) has alleged that their computer systems were breached by Egyptian hackers who distributed mass emails claiming that Egypt's victory was "snatched by corrupt refereeing decisions."
The defending champions are reported to have fallen victim to a cyber-attack that resulted in accredited members of Argentinian media receiving threats of additional digital assaults if 'justice' isn't delivered.
According to a report from Argentinian publication La Calle, the emails, dispatched from AFA email addresses, challenged the performance of French referee Francois Letexier. The content within the emails declared that "Argentina did not win" and that the result stemmed from "corrupt refereeing decisions," while commending the Egyptian's display.
The publication indicates that the group of Egyptian-origin hackers compromised part of the federation's database, acquiring email addresses, passwords, IP addresses, and specialized form information. After mass emails were distributed to journalists, Argentina issued a statement urgently emphasizing that they dismiss any activity from their channels that appears "unusual."
Their statement read, via The Mirror: "Dear colleagues, we would like to inform you that we have detected the possible sending of emails from one of our institutional accounts that were neither generated nor authorized by our team.
"Given this situation, and while we conduct the corresponding verifications with the IT department, we would like to inform you that...We ask that you disregard any messages you have recently received from our account that seem unusual.
"There is a possibility that our account has been the subject of unauthorised access, so we are working to clarify what happened and take the necessary security measures. Our systems have the corresponding security and safeguards in place.
"Thank you very much for your attention and cooperation."
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The Pharaohs found themselves victims of a historic World Cup comeback as Lionel Messi orchestrated a second-half resurgence to preserve their title defense aspirations.
Mohamed Salah and his teammates established a two-goal advantage and appeared poised to shock the reigning champions before Messi contributed both a goal and an assist in a 3-2 victory for Lionel Scaloni's team. Yet the game was overshadowed by heated protests from the Egyptian delegation, who felt aggrieved by officiating calls.
Ziko's potential second strike was disallowed due to an infringement during the buildup, while Salah was refused a penalty kick in the sequence that led to Enzo Fernandez's decisive goal.
Meanwhile, the messages reflected grievances and objections voiced by coach Hossam Hassan and Mostafa Ziko. But the complaints drew a firm rebuttal from FIFA's Chief Refereeing Officer, Pierluigi Collina.
The ex-World Cup final referee came to the defense of his fellow officials in the wake of mounting criticism. He stated: "Constructive discussion about decisions will always be part of football, but unfounded allegations have no place in our sport. Nobody can question the integrity of the FIFA World Cup match officials."
Source: Alloutsoccer.com
