As Argentina advanced to the World Cup final, a wave of viral conspiracy theories accusing FIFA of favouring Lionel Messi has exploded across social media — fuelled by controversial refereeing decisions in Argentina’s match against Egypt and AI-generated memes depicting Messi as “FIFA’s princess.”
Lionel Messi is in a World Cup final. And a significant chunk of the internet thinks something is very wrong with that.
As Argentina prepared for their weekend showdown against Spain, a parallel storm raged on social media — with millions of users accusing FIFA and president Gianni Infantino of engineering Messi’s path to glory.
AI-generated memes showing Messi dressed as a princess alongside a smiling Infantino have racked up staggering engagement. One post on X surpassed 1 million views and 90,000 likes, alleging Infantino had “successfully taken out all of Messi’s competition.” A TikTok video baselessly accusing Messi of paying “millions” for extra penalty kicks was liked over 2 million times.
Forbes reports that the conspiracy theories gained serious traction after Argentina’s dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Egypt, during which referees voided an Egyptian goal and allegedly ignored a potential Argentine foul. Egypt coach Hossam Hassan called the game “unfair,” suggesting FIFA “wanted Messi to stay in the running.” The Egyptian Football Association said it “cannot remain silent” over decisions that “raised serious concerns.” Mass emails sent to journalists — later linked to an apparent hack of Argentina’s systems — declared: “The robbery will not go unnoticed.”
Critics also noted Argentina faced none of the top 13 FIFA-ranked teams before their semi-final against fourth-ranked England — though that comeback win tempered some criticism.
The pushback from officialdom has been firm. Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni dismissed the claims outright. “Social media magnifies everything. That’s where the debates begin. But there hasn’t been any favoritism,” he told reporters. FIFA’s refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina also rejected bias allegations, insisting “nobody can claim that FIFA refereeing can be influenced by anyone, not even by the FIFA president.”
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