The Wikipedia page for the French referee who took charge of the Round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt on Tuesday was changed this week to state that he is Jewish, leading Egyptian fans to blame Israel, Jews and Zionism for their team’s loss.
Francois Letexier has been subjected to a slew of online abuse from disgruntled viewers following a number of contentious calls during the game.
These included calling a foul, with the help of VAR, that ruled out an Egyptian goal and giving Argentina what would ultimately prove a decisive penalty.
Much of the ire centred around claims that football’s governing body, Fifa, is biased in favour of Argentina and its star player, Lionel Messi, which have been prevalent on social media during the World Cup.
However, an Egyptian YouTuber with around 300,000 followers made a video the day after the match claiming that Egypt had “lost to Zionism”, citing Argentine President Javier Milei’s staunch support for Israel and suggesting a Zionist conspiracy is active within Fifa to advance the South American nation’s prospects in the tournament.
Subsequently, the “early life” section on Letexier’s Wikipedia page was altered to suggest he was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Brittany and that his grandfather was an active member of the French Resistance during the Second World War.
The edit was made by a Bangladesh-based user, who later removed it citing lack of evidence, while another editor under the username “thepharoah17” added Letexier to the topic page for prominent French Jews.
In the wake of the change, several Egyptian fans shared screenshots of the page claiming that the referee’s now-debunked Jewishness played a role in his alleged bias against their team.
It was also shared by a number of prominent pro-Palestine accounts, including Rahmeh Aladwan, a British doctor currently charged with four counts of inviting support for Hamas.
The claim was even “confirmed” as factual by X, formerly Twitter’s, built-in AI chatbot, Grok, in response to users’ questions, though it later reversed its position.
The Wikipedia entry was subsequently reverted to remove the false reference to Letexier’s Jewish upbringing, with editors stating that there was no evidence to support the claim and no reliable sourcing confirming where it originated.
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