{"id":388137,"date":"2026-07-06T17:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/388137\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T17:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:51:17","slug":"trump-says-he-disputed-u-s-star-players-suspension-calling-it-stain-on-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/388137\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he disputed U.S. star player’s suspension, calling it ‘stain’ on World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump said Monday that he called the president of FIFA to dispute a red card<\/a> that would have barred the American striker Folarin Balogun from playing in Monday\u2019s elimination game with Belgium, acknowledging an extraordinary intervention by a head of state in the sport\u2019s disciplinary process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked for a review because I didn\u2019t think it was a foul,\u201d Trump told reporters during an event in the Oval Office. \u201cI am good at this stuff. I didn\u2019t think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA subsequently rescinded Balogun\u2019s suspension, the first time the governing body has reversed a red-card penalty during a World Cup in 64 years. Belgium has protested the decision, and a hearing is scheduled for Monday to determine whether Balogun\u2019s reinstatement will stand.<\/p>\n

Trump said it would be a \u201cstain\u201d on the World Cup to let the penalty stand, and even called the referee who issued the card \u201csuspect\u201d with a questionable past, though he did not provide evidence to support the accusation.<\/p>\n

While many in the United States joined the president in celebrating the reversal, others blasted its adverse impact on the integrity of the sport.<\/p>\n

The Belgium team has protested the penalty reversal, with the country\u2019s soccer federation saying it was \u201castonished\u201d by the ruling. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not defending the national team or federation. We are defending football,\u201d Belgian coach Rudi Garcia said.<\/p>\n

The episode has drawn attention to Trump\u2019s close relationship with Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA. In December, Infantino presented Trump with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, an award the governing body created after Trump was passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize. That decision is now the subject of an ethics complaint, backed by members of the European Parliament, who argue it compromised FIFA\u2019s political neutrality.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Trump appeared to downplay the significance of his call to Infantino.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell him what to do, and I don\u2019t believe he made the decision,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI think it was a committee that made the decision, and they made the right decision, because number one, it wasn\u2019t a foul, and you want to see a game with your best players.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said it would be \u201cvery unfair\u201d and \u201cterrible\u201d to not let Balogun play. He said it would be the equivalent of barring Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi or Portugal\u2019s Cristiano Ronaldo \u2014 both global superstars \u2014 because they \u201cran\u201d or \u201cbumped\u201d into someone on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have our best players, and they have to have their best players. And if we win or we lose, it\u2019s fair,\u201d Trump said. \u201cLet\u2019s say we lost [Balogun] and we lose the game \u2014 it would be a terrible thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump said Monday that he called the president of FIFA to dispute a red card that would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[155885,61169,107836,6848,156197,8862,129210,48,52,51,47,50,49,1024,3020,136978,7496,156504,39538,1519,5393],"class_list":["post-388137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-balogun","tag-belgium","tag-close-relationship","tag-decision","tag-elimination-game","tag-fifa","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-monday","tag-president-trump","tag-soccer-federation","tag-sport","tag-stain","tag-suspension","tag-trump","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}