The President of the United States Donald Trump confirmed that he personally spoke to FIFA President Gianni Infantino and asked him to review the red card and one-match suspension given to Team USA forward Folarin Balogun during the FIFA World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina. The suspension was later lifted, allowing Balogun to participate in the U.S.’s Round of 16 match against Belgium, a decision that sparked widespread debate.The United States are scheduled to face Belgium in the round of 16 at the Seattle Stadium in Seattle on Monday (5:30 am IST). When asked by a reporter, “Can you describe your phone call with Gianni Infantino on the red card? Belgium is appealing the decision,” Trump confirmed that he had spoken to the FIFA president.Here’s what Trump said:I said that I spoke to Gianni, who is very respected, who produced the most successful World Cup in history, they say, four times.This is not just a success. I really said, Johnny, we have all these games. Everyone has become a Super bowl, and we have all these games. You know, when you think about it, every game is like a Super Bowl.Yes. I saw last night that a game that was with Mexico and England. I mean, two countries. I don’t know the players, although I think Kane is a great player. You see, I played golf with him, and I really enjoyed it. He’s a good golfer, but he’s really big.But I looked and no reason for me to look. And you can’t take your eyes off the game because I said, Johnny, you know, you have all these games because they’re adding games to a country where we really don’t have any. It’s not our main sport, per say.And this was four times more successful. He told me last night, the numbers are four times bigger. They think 50 or 60 million people are going to watch the game tonight. I mean, these became super bowl numbers.But you have a game tonight, and they think they’re projecting a minimum of 50 million people watching a game. Let’s call it football. It’s called football, I guess, but we can’t really call it football because it’s getting a bit. There is some confusion. So, yes, you call it football. We are the only ones who do that, but we have football, and football is great, but I have never seen anything like this.So I saw the game, and I am a person who loves sports and was a good athlete. And I understand sports really well. Really good. And that was not a piece. It wasn’t even an infraction.It was two men running at full speed and crashing into each other. You can’t take your foot and put it on someone else’s foot when you walk, no. These were two great athletes who became entangled.And this referee, what. Is it a little suspicious? If you check his. If you check your past. I don’t want to say that because I don’t like to create controversy, but. But very suspicious. If you want, I will give you the past.I made a call that no one could believe. You know, even the people on the other side, they say, oh, we were lucky. Wow, that’s it.And it is very interesting. They say they don’t show them in slow motion. And I never realized that I had never heard of it, that they are not allowed to review in slow motion because it is so different, because you take a quarter of a second and you see that a hand touches a neck or you see something.Whereas when you see it in fast motion, it will look like two men have met, which is actually what happened. They were kind of entangled. He has done nothing wrong, and he 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 it meant. I didn’t think it meant much. Then I began to feel that this means that he can not play in the next game. At least in the next game.I said, boy, that’s a big one. You know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair. But when they take your best player, or right, they have some great players, but. And they say you can’t play, it’s very unfair.Here we go. You know, it’s one thing to penalize someone for the game, but how do you penalize a game that hasn’t even been played? It is very unfair. You can’t do that.So, yes, I requested a review from FIFA. I spoke to a man who is highly respected and, by the way, his level of respect has increased tenfold.
Folarin Balogun red card : What happened exactly
Balogun, the tournament’s top American scorer with three goals, received a red card for clumsily stepping on the right ankle of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Tarik Muharemovic in a 2-0 32-run win on Wednesday, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.FIFA announced on Sunday that the suspension had been lifted for the 16th match, an extraordinary move that drew praise from Trump and outrage from the Belgian team. It appears to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup has not resulted in a suspension.“Thank you to FIFA for doing the right thing and putting an end to a great injustice!” Trump later said in a statement on social media.The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said it was “stunned”, and Belgium coach Rudi Garcia mocked FIFA’s action.“I didn’t know that in the FIFA offices the fifth of July was the first of April in Europe,” Garcia said through a translator in an April Fools’ Day comparison. “The Belgian federation does not defend itself, it does not protect the national team. It defends football in general, it defends its integrity, its ethics. I think it is the first time in the history of the World Cup that there is this kind of decision.”FIFA said its decision was based on Article 27 of the disciplinary committee’s rules.“The judicial body may decide to suspend in whole or in part the implementation of a disciplinary measure,” says the rule. “While suspending the implementation of the sanction, the judicial body subjects the sanctioned person to a probationary period of one to four years.”