President of the United States Donald Trump has confirmed that he contacted FIFA over the decision to suspend Folarin Balogun for one game following his red card. FIFA announced, to widespread surrpise, that Balogun’s one-game ban had been converted into a suspended sentence, going against protocol.
The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) had announced that it would appeal the decision to suspend Balogun’s ban, which FIFA are yet to explain. The decision was welcomed by USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino, while Belgium Rudi Garcia was astounded by the decision.
Trump confirms conversations with FIFA to change Balogun call
On Monday, Trump confirmed in a White House address that he had spoken to FIFA about the decision to suspend Balogun.
“I saw the play. And I’m a person that loves sports and was a good athlete. I understand sports really well, really well. And that wasn’t a foul. That wasn’t even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. And this referee, who is a little bit suspect … I don’t like to create controversy, but very suspect. He made a call that nobody could believe. You know, even people on the other side, they said, ‘oh, we got lucky’. Wow. That’s very interesting,” The Guardian quote.
“And he [Balogun] is our best player, or one of our best players, a very vital player. And he gave him a red card. I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can’t play in the next game. I said, boy, that’s a big, you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair. But when they take your best player, or just about, and they say you can’t play, that’s very unfair. That’s you know, it’s one thing to penalise somebody for the game, but how do you penalise them for a game that hasn’t been played yet? It’s very unfair. You can’t do that.”
Before Trump took to the lectern, Senator Ted Cruz had thanked Trump for ‘sorting out’ the red card.
“So yes, I asked for a review by Fifa. I spoke to a man who’s highly respected and by the way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold. And he was good before this started. But, you know, he really pushed it in this country.”
Almost unprecedented in World Cup history
There is one previous precedent of a player being sent off and playing the next game in the World Cup, with Brazilian star Garrincha featuring in the 1962 World Cup after being sent off. However that was before the implementation of mandatory one game suspensions, with Garrincha being cleared to play by the authorities at the time.
That said, the Balogun decision will go down in history. FIFA have denied interference from Trump, but his comments would appear to meet the conditions for the suspension of the US Football Federation due to political interference.
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