Referee Wilton Sampaio Criticized By Harry Maguire And Gary Neville After England's Loss To France

Harry Maguire and Gary Neville both criticized referee Wilton Sampaio after he oversaw England's 2-1 loss to France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.

Harry Maguire and Gary Neville both criticized referee Wilton Sampaio after he oversaw England's 2-1 loss to France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.

Sampaio awarded England two penalty kicks, though the second was only given following a VAR intervention.

But England felt they could have had another penalty in the first half, after Harry Kane was seemingly fouled by Dayot Upamecano.

Center-back Upamecano also got away with a potential foul on Bukayo Saka in the build up to France's first goal, scored by Aurelien Tchouameni.

Ex-England right-back Neville, who is also a former member of the Three Lions coaching staff, tweeted during the game: "Ref is a joke!"

Referee Wilton Sampaio pictured during France's 2-1 win over England at the 2022 World Cup :: IMAGO/Ulmer/Teamfoto

Ref is a joke!

— Gary Neville (@GNev2) December 10, 2022

Neville doubled down the morning after by telling Sky Sports: "The referee I think could have been better, I thought he was awful.

"That's not me blaming the referee for England going out, I just thought he was absolutely awful.

"I don't actually say that much anymore. I used to when I played. I used to think that quite a bit. It was just a mentality.

"But now, I've been on Sky for 10 or 11 years and it's very rare for me to say that the referee was an absolute disgrace.

"I thought it was a shocker.

"We were sat in the corner where the penalty [that was not given] was with Harry Kane in the first half. There were three or four fouls in that area of the pitch in first half and I thought: 'How's that not been given a foul?' It was weird.

"Even the penalty that was given against [Theo] Hernandez wasn't given by the referee on the pitch. Don't overthink that, it was a blatant foul."

🗣 "I thought the referee was absolutely awful. I thought he was a shocker." 😳@GNev2 doesn't hold back on his analysis of the referees performance in England vs France#FIFAWorldCup #ENG pic.twitter.com/XowX1kEJOn

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 11, 2022

Maguire, who played the full 90 minutes for England, spoke to BBC Sport after the game.

He said of the referee's performance: "Really poor, very poor. From minute one.

"Five, six fouls in the first 15 minutes, not one yellow card."

Maguire added: "For me it's a foul for the first goal.

"I can't really go into explaining how bad his performance really was.

"I don't want to go into it too much because I'll end up getting fined.

"But even though the big decisions were wrong, he never gave us anything.

"Throughout the game, he was really poor."

🗣 "I can't really go into explaining how bad [the referees] performance was."

Harry Maguire has had his say after England's defeat by France 😬#BBCFootball #BBCWorldCup https://t.co/VyyVICtRhr

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 10, 2022

Sampaio has been listed as a FIFA referee since 2013. 

England vs France was his fourth game at Qatar 2022.

The 40-year-old also took charge of Senegal vs Holland, Poland vs Saudi Arabia and Holland vs USA.