President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he intervened in the World Cup by asking FIFA President Gianni Infantino to reverse the suspension of American star forward Folarin Balogun for Monday night’s knockout match against Belgium.

The involvement by Trump, who has close ties to Infantino, has thrown kerosene on FIFA’s extraordinary move to table Balogun’s automatic one-game suspension for a red card in a July 1 elimination game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump told reporters Monday at an unrelated event in the Oval Office.

The president denied telling Infantino what to do, and noted that a FIFA committee made the decision, which he believes was the right one.

“All I did was ask for a review,” he added. “I didn’t say, ‘You have to do this.’”

The president insisted that having Balogun play was better for Belgium. If the Red Devils were to beat the U.S. without Balogun, he said, the game “would have a big mark on it if we lost, if we won, no matter what happened” — precisely the argument critics of FIFA’s decision have been making.

“If they beat us, then they can be really proud,” Trump said of the Belgians, before invoking one of his favorite topics: With Balogun suspended, he said, “if they beat us, we’ll say it was — I say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020. But I won’t get into that.”

Trump’s remarks come a day after FIFA announced that it would defer Balogun’s match ban for a one-year probationary period, triggering cries of special treatment from Belgium’s coach, the European soccer federation and others.

“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump said in a statement on social media minutes after the suspension was set aside.

Sports broadcaster Ben Jacobs was first to report the call between Trump and Infantino.

Balogun, the American leader with three goals, received a red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemović of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a 2-0 round of 32 win on Wednesday.

A red card triggers an automatic one-game suspension. While FIFA can increase the length of the suspension, it almost never sets one aside and has never done so in this manner in a World Cup.

The Royal Belgian Football Association, or RBFA, said it was “astonished,” and Belgium coach Rudi Garcia mocked FIFA’s action.

“I didn’t know that in the offices of FIFA 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, she defends football in general, she defends her integrity, her ethics.”

Garcia wouldn’t respond when asked about a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport or whether he thought Trump affected FIFA’s action.

“In order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at this FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament, the RBFA is investigating all potential options,” the Belgian federation said in a statement.

The Union of European Football Associations called the decision “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable” in a statement Monday, but stopped short of describing any action it might take.

American players learned of Balogun’s availability when social media posts started popping up during the 10-minute bus ride Sunday from their hotel to training at the University of Washington’s Husky Soccer Stadium. FIFA’s decision was so unheard-of that many of the players didn’t initially believe it.

Balogun’s red card had been one of the World Cup’s most controversial and consequential decisions.

“If you look at the foul, it was just zero intent at all,” U.S. star Christian Pulisic said. “I felt like there was much worse ones that went on this tournament.”

The U.S. Soccer Federation learned of FIFA’s action in a message sent by FIFA in its portal Sunday morning.

“The implementation of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year,” FIFA announced without explaining its rationale. “If Folarin Balogun commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension shall be revoked and the sanction enforced without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infringement.”

Balogun’s three goals in the tournament so far include the go-ahead strike against Bosnia. He has matched Landon Donovan in 2010 for the second-most goals by an American in a World Cup, behind only Bert Patenaude’s four in the initial tournament, in 1930.

A 25-year-old who plays for AS Monaco in France’s top division, Ligue 1, Balogun scored 13 goals for the club last season. He has 12 goals in 30 international appearances.

“He strikes fear into a lot of defenders,” U.S. defender Chris Richards said.

Balogun had been one of the stories of the tournament so far for the U.S. Born in Brooklyn to Nigerian parents who were living in London, he was eligible to play for all three nations and in 2023 opted to change his national team affiliation from England, which he had represented at the under-21 level.

The host U.S. is seeking to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002. The Americans lost in the round of 16 to Ghana in 2010, Belgium in 2014 and the Netherlands in 2022. They failed to advance from the group stage in 2006 and didn’t qualify for the 2018 tournament.

The USSF did not make Balogun available for comment, but he posted on social media a picture of himself in front of U.S. fans and overlaid with music from Michael Jackson’s single “Bad.”

On Friday, Balogun said he thought a yellow card instead of red “would have been fair.”

FIFA said its decision relied on Article 27 of disciplinary committee rules.

“The judicial body may decide to fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure. By suspending the implementation of the sanction, the judicial body subjects the person sanctioned to a probationary period of one to four years,” the rule states.

FIFA announced in November it would defer the final two games of a three-match ban for Portugal’s superstar Cristiano Ronaldo for a red card against Ireland in a World Cup qualifier, allowing him to play in the World Cup.

Argentine defender Nicolás Otamendi and Ecuadoran midfielder Moisés Caicedo in April had one-game bans deferred for red cards in qualifiers, also allowing them to be available in time for the tournament.

But the closest precedent for Balogun’s case, the lifting of a suspension incurred during the tournament itself, goes back decades: Brazil’s Garrincha was ejected from a 1962 semifinal but allowed to play in the final against Chile, after political pressure.

Julianne McShane contributed to this report.

The post Trump confirms intervening to lift Balogun’s World Cup suspension appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.