American media reports have confirmed that the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology has turned from a safety net into a "device for confiscating joy," after it marred the Egypt vs. Argentina match in the Round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup, igniting widespread anger that could potentially oust the technology from the World Cup permanently.

In the 78th minute of Tuesday's match, Mustafa 'Ziko' scored a brilliant goal for Egypt after cutting across the entire pitch, but the Pharaohs' joy was short-lived. VAR intervened to disallow the goal, citing a foul by Egypt nearly 90 meters from the goal, at the start of the same attack.

The decision not only changed the course of the match but also altered the trajectory of the tournament, as Egypt lost 2-3 and exited the World Cup, while the controversy erupted and continues to this day.

Following the events after the match that eliminated Egypt from the World Cup, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal described what happened as "the worst that video assistant referee technology has offered."

In a sharp editorial on Thursday, the American newspaper said: "It wasn't about a foul committed by Ziko himself... it was like time travel."

The newspaper directly called for the suspension of the technology in the World Cup, stating that it "no longer seems like a safety net, but has turned into a device for confiscating joy, as if designed by evil robots to steal surprise and suck the soul out of a beautiful game."

Critics of the technology believe that what happened in the Egypt-Argentina match embodies the major crisis of VAR: fans no longer celebrate goals before waiting for a signal from the video room, and players score while fearing a small screen that might appear minutes later to tell them that what they did never happened.