More than 500,000 people have signed an online petition launched in Argentina, asking France to “stop crying” following their defeat in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.
“Since we won, the French have not stopped crying and complaining and do not accept that Argentina is the world champion,” said Valentin Gomez, the initiator of the petition, which collected 570,768 signatures on the “Change. org” website.
Polish referee Simon Marciniak, who refereed the final last Sunday, sparked criticism in France, especially over his decision to award a penalty kick to “Albiceleste” following Osman Dembele fouled Angel Di Maria in the first half.
The French expressed their regret for the “lack of tact” of some Argentine players in the celebration following the coronation, especially goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Another French petition
More than 200,000 Frenchmen had signed a petition addressed to the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), in which they demanded a rematch because their team was subjected to arbitral injustice at the hands of Marciniac.
The objections of the signatories centered on the shot of Lionel Messi scoring the third goal for Argentina, in the presence of a number of Argentine players on the field.
FIFA did not pay attention to this French petition.
Marciniak defended himself by saying that “the French are exaggerating” and said that the presence of Argentine players from the reserves on the field did not affect the game while Messi scored the third goal.
He added that the timing of Kylian Mbappe scoring the second goal for France also witnessed the presence of a large number of French reserve players on the field, which did not affect the calculation of the goal.
“The French did not mention this picture. You can see seven French players on the field when Mbappe scored a goal,” he said, holding up a picture on his phone of the moment Mbappe scored the second goal.
And Marciniak added regarding not awarding a penalty kick to Thuram: “They told me from the VAR room immediately following the decision that there was a foul and a penalty kick, but they immediately started looking at everything from different angles, following that they made sure that the French player was claiming being handicapped and that I made the right decision.”
