The suspension of the American World Cup star was lifted after Trump called the FIFA president

Amna Nawaz:

Well, let’s now turn our attention to President Trump’s involvement in another international case. That’s the World Cup.

The USA faces Belgium tonight with star striker Flo Balogun on the field. Balogun received a red card in last week’s match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, meaning he will miss tonight’s match. Then Trump intervened, and FIFA overturned Balogun’s suspension, leading to controversy and anger.

For more, we turn now to our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, as well as Leander Schaerlakins, who has covered the Cup for ESPN and The Guardian and is the author of The Long Game: American Men’s Soccer and Its Brutality, a Four-Decade Journey or Thereabout to the Top.

Leander, I’ll go to you first, because you’ve been covering football for a while.

For context, how unusual is it for a red card to be issued during a World Cup match and then overturned in the middle of the tournament? How often does this happen?

Leander Shirlakins, The Guardian:

The rules are very clear here. You get a red card, and you will be suspended for the next match. In fact, the last time I was on your show, I was asked, is there any chance you’ll play in the next game? I said no, because he wasn’t there.

This has happened before in the World Cup. In 1962, a Brazilian player named Garrincha escaped an automatic ban. It hasn’t happened since then. There is a bit of recent precedence, as Cristiano Ronaldo was due to miss the first two World Cup matches due to suspension.

But then he went to the White House with his Saudi employer, Mohammed bin Salman, and suddenly that suspension was gone and he was ready to take part in the opening matches of the World Cup. But this isn’t supposed to happen. There’s a huge buzz around the world about this, and it’s true, because what’s happened here is that a mistake has been corrected in football, because it wasn’t supposed to be a red card.

The United States downplayed one player for half an hour and would have been without its best striker for this Belgium match. But by correcting this mistake, an even greater mistake has now been made, and the Belgians are understandably upset.

Amna Nawaz:

So, Liz, how did this happen? The president came out and said he made a call, he intervened. What do we know about what he said?

Liz Landers:

President Trump and the administration appear to have been quick to act after this happened last week. The President spoke about this in great detail today in the Oval Office. He said he watched the play during the game last week and thought it wasn’t a foul, instead, it was, he said, just two great athletes colliding.

He described the player as a very lively player when someone explained to him the meaning of the red card, and he felt that the red card was very unfair. So he said in the Oval Office today that he called FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and here’s how he described that phone conversation.

President Donald Trump:

I think it would have had a huge stigma. It conveyed just that feeling. I didn’t tell him what to do. I can’t tell him what to do, but–and I don’t think he’s made up his mind. I think the committee made the decision. And they made the right decision.

Liz Landers:

The president said that he asked Infantino to review the red card and review what happened during the match.

And within an hour and a half of the President making those comments today, we got a statement from the President of FIFA, and he said in part in that statement – quote – “During our conversation, I made clear that there is an ongoing legal process involving the independent judicial bodies at FIFA, and that the case will be decided in due course by the relevant bodies. This is the way the FIFA system works, and it is a principle I will always uphold.”

So, defending the independence of the organization there. But these two men have a very close relationship. FIFA has taken up offices in Trump Tower. Infantino attended President Trump’s inauguration. And of course, people may remember last year, during the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center here in Washington, Gianni Infantino presented President Trump with the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize.

Amna Nawaz:

Can I follow up with a little sarcasm in all this as well? This is the president intervening on behalf of Flo Balogun.

Balogun can only play for Team USA due to his birthright citizenship. His Nigerian mother was so pregnant that she could not return from the United States when she was visiting. That’s why he’s an American citizen. He grew up in the UK. Was the president asked about this matter, which he worked to reverse?

Liz Landers:

The president was not asked about this, and he did not address this paradox either.

He has challenged birthright citizenship from day one of his return to office here with this executive order, which the Supreme Court ruled against last week and said the 14th Amendment gives people the right to citizenship if you’re born here in the United States, so he’s basically defending Balogun’s status as a U.S. citizen, as well as anyone else who has birthright citizenship here.

The president expressed disappointment with the decision, but then went on to say last week that he still wants to challenge safe birthright citizenship. Now we see the president advocating on behalf of this player when Team USA benefits him.

Amna Nawaz:

So, Leander, going back to the World Cup, we now know that Belgium is clearly angry. The latest news seems to indicate that FIFA has rejected their appeal. What do you expect will happen next? Will there be more appeals? What does all this mean for the USA match tonight?

Leander Shirlakins:

Well, first of all, Belgium was basically told, you can appeal this decision, even though they were never given any explanation or told what the appeal process would look like, and so they filed a blind appeal.

Then FIFA ruled very quickly and said: No, you have no standing in this case. Therefore, your appeal is rejected, or it is not considered at all. This was a really tough game for the USA, as they played Belgium in March. They lost 5-2 in a friendly match. They were eliminated by Belgium in the 2014 World Cup at the same stage in the round of 16.

The United States had a lot more momentum going into this game, but it also seemed like that kind of re-energized the Belgians, and it seemed like a lot of the goodwill that was building up around this American team in this World Cup, which is the point of eventually hosting the World Cup, kind of disintegrated.

And there’s a huge asterisk behind them if they can win this game. So now the whole thing has all these extra layers of geopolitics and scandal because the rest of the football world outside of FIFA, the Belgian FA, the Bosnian FA, which is the team that Balogun got the red card against, UEFA, which is UEFA, they’re all upset, and that’s not going to go away immediately after this game.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, Leander Schaerlakins, Liz Landers, thank you.

Liz Landers:

naturally.