Read for 5 minutesUpdated: 9 July 2026 10:21 PM IST
On days when he is not refereeing, Francois Latexier Sometimes showing up at a stranger’s door with papers that make him feel unwelcome before he can say a word. He’s been the most talked about referee at the World Cup this week, looking to kick Egypt out of the tournament and the parallels between his two jobs have never been hard to ignore.
He is a huissier de justice, a bailiff, the person to whom the French legal system sends notices and enforces judgments anyone asks to receive. He specializes in rent disputes and illegal dealings: evictions, mostly, which don’t make an easy company at the door. He found a job at law school and liked that it was hands-on. Little did he expect that this would become the best available description of his other career.
Asked what the two jobs have in common, he simply told French outlet Brut: “Football creates some crazy behavior in terms of emotions, and in my work as a bailiff, my presence is not always welcome when I engage in collection actions. The situation also creates reactions that I have to adapt to.”
He trains for refereeing on top of case files five or six times a week. He describes the arrangement as two careers that complement each other, and there is an obvious reason why he keeps it up: French referees are not professionals and football is a volatile business. A bailiff job is a steady income. He has said that outside of the game he calls the extraordinary, he steps into ordinary life.
France’s referee Francois Latexier shows a red card to Egypt’s assistant coach Mohamed Abdel Waheed during the World Cup Round of 16 soccer match between Argentina and Egypt, Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
It didn’t feel normal this week. On Tuesday night in Atlanta, Latexier had an Egyptian goal disallowed for a foul in the build-up, Hamdy Fathi’s penalty appeal was canceled in stoppage time and a member of Egypt’s coaching staff was sent off, all as Argentina scored three times in the final minutes to win 3-2. At one point, Egypt manager Hossam Hassan crossed his arms at the latexer, a symbol FIFA uses to report racial abuse. What happened at that point is disputed. It is not disputed that Argentina went through this.
By Wednesday, Egypt’s federation president had filed a formal complaint calling for Latexier to be suspended for the rest of the tournament. Latexier deactivated his Instagram. L’Equipe reported that FIFA will review his performance before deciding whether he takes charge of the second match, although there is a simple reason why he cannot: FIFA does not appoint referees from countries still alive in the tournament, and France is still alive.
FIFA’s head of referees, Pierluigi Collina, went further than to promise a review. He called the criticism baseless, saying no one can question World Cup match officials and warning that doing so could lead to threats against referees and their families. “No one can question the integrity of FIFA World Cup match officials,” he said.
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Referee Francois Latexier of France gestures to Egypt’s players during the World Cup Round of 16 soccer match between Argentina and Egypt, Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
This story was followed by another press conference. Asked on Wednesday about handing Wednesday’s quarter-final against Morocco to an all-Argentina 5-referee crew led by Facundo Tello, Didier Deschamps didn’t so much ponder the question as frame it carefully. “Let us hope our officers are as good as Monsieur Latexier,” he said.
Here’s an example of what happens next, and it’s not encouraging. At the 2002 World Cup, Ecuador’s Byron Moreno was blamed for Italy’s elimination from co-hosts South Korea, and although FIFA never said so directly, he never refereed again in that tournament.
He is 37 years old. The IFFHS, historians of the game, named him the best referee in the world in 2024, the first Frenchman to win the title since Michel Votrot in 1989. None of that is in question this week. FIFA has defended it. What he hasn’t done is say whether he’ll referee this tournament again, and that’s the part that will actually decide things. He’s been here before in a small way: a controversial penalty and two red cards at Nantes against Nice in 2022 led to death threats. He knows what it’s like to knock on a door and find no one inside knows the paperwork is correct.