The influential French publication "L'Équipe" gave a shocking rating to Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev, who officiated the France-Paraguay (1:0) match in the 1/8 final stage of the 2026 World Cup.
Modern.az reports that the publication rated the referee's performance 1 out of 10 points.
This is considered the lowest and "historically" disgraceful rating given by "L'Équipe" to a head referee in the history of World Cups. According to experts and French media, Tantashev completely lost control of the match and remained indifferent to the "dirty play" on the field, as well as the roughness of the Paraguayan players.
It was noted that although the Paraguay national team violated the rules 13 times during the match, the referee did not show them a single yellow card. This is the first time in World Cups since 1998 that a team comes out "clean" despite such rough play.
A biased approach against France is also one of the criticisms. All 3 yellow cards given in the game (Bradley Barcola, Manu Koné, and Michael Olise) were only for the French national team.
The penalty incident that led to France's victory was not recorded by the referee, but only after the intervention of the VAR system. Furthermore, despite two mass confrontations on the field, Tantashev was unable to regulate the pace of the game and the behavior of the players.
German international referee Patrick Ittrich called Tantashev's performance "catastrophic." On social media, fans are demanding that the Uzbek referee not be assigned to any more games in WC-2026.
