How Ilgiz Tantashev’s lenient officiating almost cost France vs Paraguay in Round 16
Ilgiz Tantashev will most likely go down as one of the worst referees the FIFA World Cup has ever seen for his performance in France’s 1-0 win over Paraguay in the round of 16, but Les Bleus will be thankful they managed to scale through.
France are through to the 2026 World Cup quarter-finals, but what happened in Philadelphia was unacceptable, and if FIFA chooses not to take any action, it may, after all, be a plot to take out the two-time champions.
It was almost the perfect crime, if not that Diego Gomez’s foul on Desire Doue was too obvious to be overlooked, and Tantashev still had to be instructed to see the pitch-side monitor before awarding the penalty.
Ilgiz Tantashev almost cost France vs Paraguay
In an era when advances in technology have helped keep players in check, Gustavo Alfaro’s side committed 13 fouls in an ugly contest in the heat of Philadelphia, but remarkably, they weren’t shown a single yellow card.
Ilgiz Tantashev was reluctant to show them any booking, even though more than a couple of the challenges could have easily seen them pick up red cards. It was the first time Paraguay has escaped booking in a World Cup game since 1998 against Nigeria.
River Plate midfielder Matias Galarza made a total nuisance of himself in the match, planting an elbow to the face of Jules Kounde off the ball while also elbowing Kylian Mbappé, also off the ball.
They provoked the French players all game, sometimes outside the books, but thanks to the backing of referee Ilgiz Tantashev, they continued all game, and even when France won the penalty, Gustavo Velazquez shamelessly scuffed the spot, and it went unpunished.
A total of 13 fouls were committed by La Albirroja without any caution, while they also made several other reckless tackles that weren’t even called by the referee.
Gustavo Alfaro’s team was clear in their intentions, as they even completed just 54.1 percent of their attempted passes, the lowest in a World Cup knockout match since 1966, but the referee allowed them the freedom to continue.
The team had earned a lot of praise for their Round of 32 victory over Germany, but their campaign will be remembered for their disgraceful showing against France, while the man who aided them, Uzbekistan referee Ilgiz Tantashev, will not be soon forgotten.
It was an unacceptable performance from the referee in a tournament where the officiating had been commendable up to that point, and FIFA has to intervene for the prestige of the game, because this is a scandal, and there should be no getting away.
