President Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to discuss the red card given to Team USA’s Folarin Balogun during Wednesday night’s game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, an person familiar with the conversation told The Hill. Trump later cheered the reversal, calling it an “injustice.”
FIFA said its independent panel overturned the red card suspension for Monday’s game.
THAT’S CORRUPTION!
orange card
Reminder of the sponsors of this tournament:
What’s between McDonald’s and Unilever?
https://www.mengniuir.com/ China Mengniu Dairy Company Limited
valvoline…that god for that lube.
Really funny seeing people sob over the integrity of the sport as if FIFA isn’t actively buying votes to line their pockets and hosting tournaments to sports-wash theocratic slave states (USA included).
The card system never made sense for international knockout play anyway because one ref with a grudge can, more or less, unilaterally eject a team from the tournament. Almost nobody has the depth to deal with a red card.
the red card was def harsh don’t get me wrong. balogun clearly didn’t mean to do that, but it’s understandable to preserve a level of safety in the game. you have FIFA saying at first that the FA will not rescind the red card given to balogun, then suddenly the president himself calls infantino and now the red card is suspended? come on. had this happened to belgium there would be uproar from so many americans. it is 1)insanely corrupt and 2) sets a very bad precedent cause now any country can just ask to get their bookings for players reversed. this is getting long but anyways please pirate all your world cup games!!
please pirate all your world cup games!!
Way ahead of you there.
This is hardly a new precedent. This is just fifa being fifa.
Funny. The American ambassador in Belgium has claimed trump didn’t and wouldn’t ever do something like that
This time excepted, of course
To be fair, Trump probably didn’t even make the call himself. He just likes taking credit for things.
Well, the 2026 world cup is officially as enshittified as Don’s diaper. I had a bad feeling at “hydration breaks”.
the last world cup worth a shit was back in 2014, i havent watched a single game of international soccer since and have zero regrets
I’m conflicted. Did he try to get it overturned? Or is he trying to get credit for it? I can see him doing both. Either way the refs have been shit in almost every game.
Unclear what Donny specifically tried to do, other than generally getting the player available for the next game. They didn’t overturn the Red or say there was a VAR protocol error, both of which would have been legitimate excuses that FIFA chose not to use.
Politics and sports shouldn’t be mixed
Sports have always been political. Look back at history to see states banning everything besides horse riding and archery for military reasons. Look at the Nika riots burning half of Constantinople. Look at the class politics of early professional teams.
“Sports shouldn’t be political” is a modern political invention to insulate leisure-as-distraction from the burning and looting going on all around us.
Politicians all show up to these events.
On one hand… I get it. On the other hand, massive protests against touring South African sides during apartheid helped bolster public understanding and support for bringing it down.
Like, should Russia and Israel be allowed to play?
The man’s a crook. FIFA knows that ignoring him would potentially cause a nasty reaction and has disgustingly been compliant.
Birds of a feather, and all that. I know Sepp Blatter has been taken out, but I haven’t had any indication that FIFA has been cleaned up.
Infantino should give him another made up prize
I will exitedly open up a nice Belgian beer if they can make Trump angry this Tuesday.
I will excitedly open up a nice Belgian beer, regardless of the results of the match. It’s just a solid decision.
Might I suggest an ABT 12 or Pavel Kwak?
I have to say, this is so strangely captivating, I can’t stop looking at it honestly! Weirdly in sync between the two very different approaches! I have zero idea why this is so enthralling but I couldn’t just scroll away without explicitly voicing my confused enjoyment, so peculiar
It’s prob in sync because they’re both doing it in time to a song or a chant
I think its simply empathy, both are looking like they have a fun time and we want to join them.
Seems like they’re in front of a bunch of kids telling a story or singing a song, or something?
Yep. Specifically a variation/verse on/of “The Wheels on the Bus,” though I didn’t watch enough of the full video to find out why there seems to be a baby on the bus?
Oh of course, the baby on the bus goes wah wah wah, wah wah wah. 😆👍
Whether the red card was bullshit or not it irrelevant. Sports fans everywhere know that shit calls get made. The issue is that a sitting president called up his buddy who happens to be the president of FIFA and had it overturned. That is fucking insane.
I feel like it would have been overturned regardless, as it was an egregiously bad call, but I agree that Trump should have plenty of better things to fill up his schedule with than calling up the FIFA president to complain about a red card in a game of footie. It’s a bad look, because now it looks like Trump had a hand in influencing the decision and the fairness and integrity of the game is called into question.
The thing is, FIFA put in rules that the Red could not be overturned. They removed the appeal process. What FIFA should have done was say there was a VAR protocol error (there actually was), which invalidates the procedure to give the Red. They didn’t take that easy out. Instead they make it completely obvious that this was corruption and not a mistake.
I’m surprised he’d intervene for a black dude
You mean a man in the US team sports arena of being bought and sold in markets.
Tf you on about? He’s never played in a US market, unless Arsenal or Monaco moved continents at some point…
I mean, Arsenal is owned by an American. But to your point, Balogun grew up in London and only happened to be born in the US due to airlines not allowing his mom to fly back to their home in London that late into her pregnancy. He has never lived in nor played in the US outside of international games.
Same idea. People are bought and sold.
You have to understand its not about intervening for a black dude. To them and other rich racist assholes, they see the players as animals there to serve them. In this case serving as entertainment. They would be just as upset if their cock fighting chicken got penalized.
Exactly. This is just like a billionaire CEO intervening to help an employee win a court case if that employee is important enough to the success of the company. That same CEO would happily throw that person under the bus if the profits would go up by doing so.
Trump would happily have this young man skinned alive if it would mean “his team” wins the next game.
