Hosam Hasan says he has watched this World Cup. “I told the referee that what is happening is not right,” the Egypt coach said after the 3-2 defeat by Argentina. “It’s an undeserved victory for Argentina… I will never watch the World Cup again, because there is no justice in this tournament.”
Egypt led 2-0 with 11 minutes remaining and Argentina scored three times to mount the tournament’s most dramatic comeback. Hassan’s complaints were broader than the scoreline: earlier in the match, Egypt had already led 2–0, with a goal disallowed on VAR review that would have made it 3–0; Late on, he realized a foul in the box wasn’t reviewed. He had objected to the referee’s identity before kicking the ball, telling Francois Latexier that his background was a problem, and later felt the Frenchman had “something to hide”. A case was registered against him for that.
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It was the 98th minute. The referee had already shown Hassan a yellow when his twin brother Ibrahim, Egypt’s team director, crossed the technical area to block him. Hossam crossed his arms at Latexier, a gesture FIFA uses to flag racist abuse, and for a moment it looked like it might escalate. Instead, Ibrahim walked up to the referee himself and gave him a thumbs up. The current crisis is over.
It’s moments like this that make for a great story about brotherhood: twin coaches, calming each other under the brightest lights in football. It is also, if you know the whole history of Hasan, a more complicated one.
Born five minutes away in 1966 in Helwan, south of Cairo, he joined Al Ahly’s academy at 13. Hossam became a striker; The right-back is good enough for Ibrahim to be selected three times for FIFA’s World XI, Egypt’s only selection. When a European club came to invite Hossam solo in the early 90s, he turned it down. “I refuse to go anywhere without him… We are one soul and we are inseparable.” In 2000, when Al Ahly refused to renew Ibrahim’s contract, Hossam fell out with him, both moving to Zamalek, the club where they spent their beating careers. Three league titles followed and one CAF Champions League.
That devotion has a hard edge that rarely makes the highlight reel. A fight on the Lebanese side was serious enough for the army to intervene, Ibrahim saw a soldier turn to strike his brother and snatched the rifle from his hand. A decade later, while coaching Al Masri, he attacked a referee and insulted the home crowd in a match against Algeria’s Mo Bejia. Five year FIFA ban.
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The same trend was seen just days before the latexier gesture in Dallas this month. Fans, including a small child, had gathered in the team hotel lobby hoping for photos with the players when Ibrahim objected to the hotel’s security and how the police were handling the crowd. It was a shocking encounter that was caught on camera. Police described the case as resolved at the scene; Hossam later said he had settled it.
Look at the two events side by side and something interesting happens: the roles are reversed. In Dallas, Ibrahim could not stand down. He was the one who pulled his brother back against Argentina. It’s not that one twin grows up and the other calms down, the one that Hassan sees the injustice is the first to move and the other follows to manage what happens next. They have been doing this since Beirut.
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That instinct never really left the pitch. Move first, protect what’s yours. A new target has just been found. After Egypt qualified, Hassan said, according to the Guardian, “success starts at the top of the pyramid and with the state officials,” and meeting the president was the reward he most wanted. The presidential message, he said, would be “a medal on my chest”. He has appointed a cassation court lawyer as the official legal spokesman, with the power to pursue “rumourmongers… anyone who wants to argue”. That order has already been used against TV presenters and pundits.
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Complaints have also gone to Egypt’s Supreme Council of Media Regulation against broadcasters who criticize the brothers, with one arguing that the criticism undermines Egypt’s “official national mission.” Egypt’s Sports Minister Ashraf Sobi also told reporters to support the coaching staff to the country’s military and political leadership.
Brothers who once took rifles from soldiers to protect each other are now doing the state machinery for them. Same attitude, different tools. And this week, in Atlanta, he found a new one: refereeing.