Argentina Football Authorities Investigate Cyber Attack Claims

Argentina’s football authorities say they may have been hit by a cyber attack after explosive emails, apparently sent from official accounts, claimed the world champions’ dramatic World Cup win over Egypt was tainted by “corrupt refereeing decisions”.

The messages, circulated to journalists after Argentina’s 3-2 comeback victory in the last 16, reportedly insisted “Argentina did not win” and suggested the result was down to officiating rather than Lionel Scaloni’s side overturning a 2-0 deficit.

What had been a classic World Cup night on the pitch has quickly turned into a digital storm off it.

From epic comeback to digital controversy

Argentina looked on the brink of a stunning early exit when Egypt surged into a two-goal lead, threatening to dump the holders out in the first knockout round. Instead, the champions rallied, producing a ruthless late surge to book their place in the quarter-finals and leave Egypt devastated.

The Egyptian Football Association did not take the defeat quietly. It formally asked Fifa to remove French referee Francois Letexier and his entire team from the tournament, accusing them of bias in favour of Argentina.

Then the narrative twisted again.

Argentine outlet La Calle reported that emails sent from an Argentine Football Association (AFA) institutional account to media outlets questioned the legitimacy of Argentina’s win and praised Egypt’s performance. According to the report, the messages claimed the result had been engineered by corrupt refereeing and lauded the beaten side’s display.

La Calle said AFA sources believe hackers of Egyptian origin may have been behind the emails, hijacking the association’s address in the hours after the final whistle.

AFA: “Possible unauthorised access”

Faced with headlines suggesting its own official channels had rubbished the national team’s victory, the AFA moved quickly to distance itself from the messages and raise the alarm over a potential breach.

“We want to inform you that we have detected the possible sending of emails from one of our institutional accounts that were not generated or authorised by our team,” the association said in a statement.

It urged recipients to treat any recent unusual correspondence with suspicion.

The AFA asked the public to “dismiss any message that you have recently received from our account and that is unusual, especially if it contains links, attachments or requests personal information”.

“There is a possibility that our account has been subject to unauthorised access, so we are working to clarify what happened and adopt the necessary security measures,” the statement added.

The fallout from a wild 3-2 on the pitch has spilled into inboxes and IT departments. Now, as Argentina prepare for a World Cup quarter-final, their federation is fighting a very different kind of battle — one over who controls their voice in the digital arena.