Overview
- The AFA said Friday that emails were sent from one of its institutional accounts without authorisation and that its systems team is investigating the incident.
- Messages dispatched from addresses tied to the federation criticised referee François Letexier and alleged the Argentina–Egypt result resulted from 'corrupt refereeing decisions.'
- Multiple outlets reported a group using the alias 'Hossam Hassan' claimed responsibility and said it stole AFA data including emails, hashed passwords, national IDs, phone numbers, IP addresses, and profile photos, but those claims and the scope of any breach remain unverified.
- FIFA's chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina publicly defended the integrity of match officials after Egypt lodged formal complaints and coach Hossam Hassan and players voiced sharp objections to key decisions.
- Investigations are ongoing and the AFA has urged recipients to ignore suspicious messages because a wider system compromise or financial loss has not been independently confirmed and any exposed data could increase risks of phishing and identity theft.