The president of the United States, Donald Trump, confirmed this Monday that asked FIFA to review the sanction imposed on striker Folarin Balogun, which initially prevented him from playing the match against Belgium, and considered that the referee’s decision was made outside of the VAR protocols.
“It’s one thing to sanction someone for a match, but how do you sanction them for a match that hasn’t been played yet? It’s very unfair. You can’t do that. That’s why I asked for a review.”stated the president during an event in the Oval Office of the White House, in the midst of the controversy over his intervention in the World Cup.
Trump questioned the action that led to the red card for the American attacker, considering that there was no infraction. “It wasn’t a foul, not even an infraction. It was two players running at full speed who collided with each other. It wasn’t a hit or anything like that.”held.
Likewise, he criticized the use of slow motion replay by Brazilian referee Raphael Claus when reviewing the play on Bosnian Tarik Muharemović. “They say you shouldn’t review these plays in slow motion. I’d never heard that before, but it completely changes the perception of the play,” he noted.
Although at the beginning of the event he assured that he did not want to talk about football, Trump acknowledged that he directly contacted the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, with whom he maintains a close relationship.
The controversy intensified after it was learned that Fifa decided to suspend Balogun’s sanction, which allowed him to be eligible to play in the round of 16 match against Belgium in Seattle. According to reports from The New York Times, the president would have intervened directly to achieve the revocation of the punishment.
The decision generated reactions in Europe. The Belgian Federation (RFBA) sent a communication to Fifa as a sign of disagreement, interpreted as an appeal, while UEFA warned that a “red line” has been crossed that compromises fairness in the competition.
Balogun, Monaco forward and top scorer for the United States in the tournament with three goals, was finally able to play a key match in the fight for a place in the quarterfinals.
Hours before, Trump had celebrated the resolution on his Truth Social network with a brief message: “Thank you to FIFA for doing the right thing and reversing a great injustice!”