The US President, Donald Trump, has said on Monday that he called the President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, over the US striker, Folarin Balogun, being shown a red card.
Trump said it was “not a foul” and his intervention regarding the red card resulted in FIFA suspending the one-match suspension.
FIFA announced the one-match suspension under Article 27 will be lifted; however, the red car will stay on his record.
Trump said speaking in the Oval Office on Monday he asked FIFA for a “review,” he continued, “I didn’t know what the hell a red card was, when I found out, I said ‘you got to be kidding’.”
Trump said: “And he [Balogun] is our best player, or one of our best players, a very vital player. And he gave him a red card. I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can’t play in the next game. I said, boy, that’s a big, you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair.
“But when they take your best player, or just about, and they say you can’t play, that’s very unfair. That’s you know, it’s one thing to penalise somebody for the game, but how do you penalise them for a game that hasn’t been played yet? It’s very unfair. You can’t do that.
“So yes, I asked for a review by Fifa. I spoke to a man who’s highly respected and by the way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold. And he was good before this started. But, you know, he really pushed it in this country.”
Trump continued: “I’m a person that loves sports and was a good athlete and I understand sports really well, really well.
“That wasn’t a foul… that was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. Like, you can’t take your foot and properly place it on somebody else’s foot… these were two great athletes that got tangled up.”
The US President added: “I’m the one that got them to do it”
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