More than 500,000 people have signed an online petition launched in Argentina, asking France to “stop crying” after their 2022 World Cup final defeat in Qatar.
“Since we won, the French have not stopped crying and complaining and do not accept that Argentina is world champion,” said Valentin Gomez, the initiator of the petition, which has collected 570,768 signatures on the “Change.org” website “.
Polish referee Simon Marciniak, who refereed the final last Sunday, has drawn criticism in France, especially for his decision to award a penalty to the “Albiceleste” after Osman Dembele fouled Angel Di Maria in the first half.
The French have expressed their regret at the “lack of tact” of some Argentine players in the celebration after the coronation, in particular goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Another French petition
More than 200,000 Frenchmen had signed a petition addressed to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), in which they demanded a rematch because their team had been subjected to a refereeing injustice at the hand of Marciniac.
The signatories’ objections focused on Lionel Messi’s shot that scored Argentina’s third goal, in the presence of numerous Argentine players on the pitch.
FIFA paid no attention to this French petition.
Marciniak defended himself by saying that “the French are exaggerating” and claimed that the presence of Argentine players on the field from the reserves did not affect the match as Messi scored the third goal.
He added that the moment when Kylian Mbappe scored France’s second goal also saw a large number of French reserve players on the pitch, which did not affect the goal calculation.
“The French didn’t mention this photo. You can see seven French players on the pitch when Mbappé scored a goal,” he said, showing a photo on his phone of the moment Mbappé scored the second goal.
And Marciniak added on the failure to award a penalty to Thuram: “Immediately after the decision they told me from the VAR room that there was a foul and a penalty, but they immediately started looking at everything from different angles, after make sure the French player claimed he was handicapped and that I made the right decision.”
