{"id":1853,"date":"2026-07-08T17:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1853"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:23:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:23:23","slug":"congratulations-to-argentina-on-winning-the-world-cup-zikos-scathing-outburst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/congratulations-to-argentina-on-winning-the-world-cup-zikos-scathing-outburst\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Congratulations to Argentina on winning the World Cup&#8217;: Ziko&#8217;s scathing outburst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-8.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1854\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-8.png 1000w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-8-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-8-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Mostafa Ziko launched an extraordinary mixed-zone rant following Egypt&#8217;s 3-2 defeat to Argentina in the 2026 World Cup Round of 16, claiming the tournament is rigged to ensure the holders retain their title on July 19th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Egypt international Mostafa Ziko launched a blistering attack on the officiating following his side&#8217;s exit from the World Cup. Argentina staged a ruthless 13-minute comeback to overturn a 2-0 deficit and secure a 3-2 victory, booking their place in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking after the final whistle, the Egyptian forward\u2014who converted his side&#8217;s second goal in the 67th minute but saw an earlier effort chalked off by VAR for a contentious foul on Lisandro Martinez\u2014offered a sarcastic tribute to Argentina while alleging the tournament is &#8220;fixed.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;They didn&#8217;t need anything else&#8230; the referee was unfair, unfair, unfair, unfair. The tournament is being steered towards Argentina. It was a clear and blatant injustice. The referee rendered all our hard work meaningless; he was against us from the start. It is a rigged tournament. Congratulations to Argentina on winning the World Cup,&#8221; the visibly incensed attacker declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mostafa Ziko&#8217;s explosive claims were echoed by his manager, Hossam Hassam: &#8220;The result was influenced by factors on the pitch and external elements prior to the match. There appeared to be pressure from Argentina on the referee, which dictated this outcome. We had previously voiced our objections regarding this official.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mostafa Ziko launched an extraordinary mixed-zone rant following Egypt&#8217;s 3-2 defeat to Argentina in the 2026 World Cup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1855,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions\/1855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}