To any lover of football (soccer) the sucking-up by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to the U.S. and Donald Trump has become unbearable:
According to media reports, Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to demand the world governing body review the suspension of the US top scorer – and FIFA duly obliged.
A red card leads to an automatic one-match suspension with no appeal. It is the first time since the 1962 World Cup that FIFA has reversed a suspension for a red card received during the World Cup.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Thank you to Fifa for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”
A picture of the “great injustice” shows that this was a clearly deserved Red:
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Yesterday’s decision to suspend for a probationary period of a year the implementation of the one-match automatic suspension following the red card issued to the player Folarin Balogun crossed a red line.
Football, like any other sports, relies on rules, which are the basis for fair, honest and transparent competition. Sometimes rules are open to interpretation. In this case not. A minimum automatic suspension of one match following a red card is not a discretionary option and does not require the decision of a competent body to be enacted. It is a principle embedded in regulations, which cannot be made subject to exceptions, let alone in the middle of a tournament where several other players have been in the same situation and regularly served their suspension.
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We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.
Even the most pro-American voices around the world will see this as a dark spot in football history.
Hu Xijin 胡锡进 @HuXijin_GT – 16:49 UTC · Jul 6, 2026
Trump’s intervention in the red-card controversy in the World Cup match will certainly do considerable damage to US’ international image. If the American public believes that Trump secured benefits for them through such behavior and therefore thanks him for doing so, then I really have nothing more to say.
This will hopefully be the end of the utterly corrupt management of FIFA.