By Bo Erickson and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Monday he asked FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review a red card issued to U.S. striker Folarin Balogun, defending the intervention as a bid to correct what he called a “horrible” officiating decision.
The unprecedented move by a sitting U.S. president in a World Cup has thrust FIFA’s disciplinary process into the spotlight and prompted an angry response from Belgium, which plays the U.S. on Monday for a place in the quarterfinals.
“All I did, I asked for a review, because I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump said the incident that led to Balogun’s red card was simply a case of two athletes colliding.
“I saw the play,” Trump said. “That wasn’t a foul. That wasn’t even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other.”
He said FIFA made a “really brilliant decision” to suspend the red card.
“I think the referee’s call was horrible,” he said.
Trump said he had only sought a review and had not pressured FIFA to overturn the call.
“I didn’t tell them what to do,” he said. “I can’t tell them what to do.”
He said it was important for Team USA to have its best players on the field, suggesting a failure to reverse the suspension would have made Monday night’s game look “rigged” against the U.S., echoing his false claims the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.
“The game tonight is going to be amazing, and we’re going to have a full team, and Belgium is going to have a full team,” Trump said. “And you know what? If they beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we’ll say it was — I’d say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020, but I won’t get into that.”
(Reporting by Bo Erickson and Steve Holland; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Colleen Jenkins)
