Why World Cup Referee Denied a Clear France Penalty vs Senegal

Nick is a combat sports writer and editor for GIVEMESPORT - with eight years of experience in the industry.

Nick started out with the GIVEMESPORT Academy in 2018 and has also previously worked as a combat sports editor for Sportskeeda. In his current role with the site, Nick produces and edits news pieces, features and evergreen articles on a wide variety of sports.

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When not writing about boxing or MMA, Nick can be found watching cricket, rugby and darts, as well as cheering on Leeds United at Elland Road.

France forward Kylian Mbappe was left stunned after being denied what looked to be a certain penalty in their opening World Cup 2026 Group I match against Senegal in New Jersey.

Losing finalists in 2022, France are among the leading contenders for this year's tournament, but got off to a slow start in the first 45 minutes of their tournament.

Their luck looked to have changed in the 58th minute of the contest when the Real Madrid man appeared to be taken out inside the box by a lunging challenge from Sadio Mane.

To the naked eye, it appeared that Mane had taken Mbappe down with his trailing leg. However, the referee Alireza Faghani disagreed and initially pointed for a corner, believing that Mane had made contact with the ball.

Soon after, the official was instructed to hold up play while a VAR review took place. When the referee was called over to the screen to take a second look at the incident, it seemed inevitable that France would be awarded a spot kick.

In a stunning turn of events, though, the outcome of the VAR review was 'no penalty', with the officials determining that Mbappe had initiated the contact before he went down.

Among those who couldn't believe the decision was French journalist Matt Spiro, who wrote on X:

"How on earth has Mbappe 'initiated the contact'. Mane came flying in, made contact with Mbappe, who fell. Harder to get a much clearer pen than that!"

That view was backed on by Darren McCann, who was part of the officiating team for the 2010 World Cup final, on the BBC's coverage of the match.

"I can't support the referee's decision. For me, it was a clear penalty." He added "My phone has been blowing up, with several of the world's best referees saying they also can't understand why the penalty wasn't given."

In some ways, justice was done a short time later when Mbappe gave Didier Deschamps' side the lead after 66 minutes. Bradley Barcola doubled the French advantage on 82 minutes as Les Bleus produced a strong second-half showing.