President Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to discuss the red card given to Team USA’s Folarin Balogun during Wednesday night’s game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, an person familiar with the conversation told The Hill. Trump later cheered the reversal, calling it an “injustice.”
FIFA said its independent panel overturned the red card suspension for Monday’s game.
I mean that red card was actually total bullshit.
Not what experts say and more importantly not relevant.
This is know about corruption. The only honorable thing for the US to do now is forfait.
Most experts say it was very harsh and probably should not have been a Red.
I guess that’s the American fan experts then - but again, that’s irrelevant , this is not a excuse for corruption. US should forfait
That part doesn’t matter. If FIFA is getting a sitting leader of one of the host country governments to interfere with the outcome, it just signals how little the United States cares about the tournament or the sport. FIFA can totally come out and reverse the ruling and tell us why. The fact that they won’t and we are hearing that Trump is involved, will make the world have more distrust. We already denied visas to the referees, players and fans from many countries who wanted to come here for the tournament. This is blatantly cheating.
If the United States team wants to save face, they need to have Balogun sit out the game tomorrow.
You really going to pretend FIFA isn’t already a corrupt clown show? That’s wild.
And so it’s fine that a dictator manipulates a tournament then ?
Is had been in all the previous ones.
The tournament itself was a clown show to begin with. Europeans absolutely delusional about the integrity of FIFA.
The card itself was absurd, and the dictator’s “manipulation” was quite small. If Belgium loses its because they’ve been playing like shit the entire contest, not because US striker’s red card that shouldn’t have been given in the first place—was overturned.
You shouldn’t be watching the tournament all if you genuinely had any principles about the integrity of FIFA / the World Cup. But you do because you’re completely fine with looking away from all their shittiness because you’re too attached to a sport.
Exactly what you said. FIFA removed Ronaldo’s 2 game suspension for no stated reason before the tournament, so this is not just Trump fixing it for the US. This is FIFA having no integrity from the beginning.
The red was very harsh. The VAR protocol was broken in giving the red. Belgium has been playing like shit.
And as incredibly sad as it has made me to miss the first World Cup in my country since I’ve been an adult, I’m boycotting it because I am not OK with looking away from their shittiness.
I am not. I already know they are.
Then why do you care about this reversal? It’s irrelevant to the integrity of FIFA. FIFA has no integrity.
Which is why they’re talking about how the team should handle it?
Their suggestion to how “the team should handle it” is them just whining about something being unfair. The card itself was a joke so the team absolutely should play Balogun.
If you don’t like that, stop supporting FIFA and get some actual integrity about issues instead of just being mad about the clown show you’re supporting behaving like a clown show.
Go back and reread the post where everyone is pointing out the fact that a sitting world leader called into FIFA to get a foul overturned.
Go back and read up what a shitty organization FIFA is and has been for decades and reexamine why you’re still so invested in, and giving them your money and attention.
It’s quite pathetic, actually.
I don’t watch FIFA so I don’t give a shit. I know that they’re corrupt as fuck, but that doesn’t change the fact that a government leader called in a favor to get a player suspension delayed for a game that doesn’t matter in the world cup.
Has this ever happened before? Should we let it slide and let more world leaders personally determine the outcome of any sports game?
No, it does matter. Two things can be wrong. But it is right that the player is not punished for a baseless call or for your other unrelated grievances that have nothing to do with what happened on the field.
Shit calls get made all the time and people just live with it. The president of a shithole country should not interfere.
An outside influence that has NOTHING to do with the game calling the head of the federation is bullshit. You can’t call him to get the call over turned why the fuck does the person who won the fifa peace prize get to do it. Let the coach or the player or the team manager get the call reversed.
Exactly. Trump corrupted the process by interfering. The fact that the decision should’ve been reversed became irrelevant the moment Trump decided to call in a favor from his buddy Infantino. It’s no longer about a bad call on the field.
yes and your mommy should call the principal and get your punishment revoked because you are a precious little petal
Was it, though? https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/871/203/356/752/532/original/53a87c3f920f27fe.jpeg
Now show the Messi boot in someone’s calf during this tournament, and the half dozen other worse infringements that didn’t even result in a yellow card
It’s all bullshit. Some Academy award level acting on those fields.
Read my earlier response in this thread that already agrees that Messi should have also been shown a red card for his challenge. It was more intentional than this one.
Ok, but Messi didn’t get a red card. So we just get some players with different rules than others? Seems like refs are just making it up as they go, not a good look for the sport.
100%. I suspect there was “guidance” on protecting Messi given the marketing $$ and this intervention by Trump for the host country was unacceptable for an arguable valid red card.
Lol I doubt anybody reffing for FIFA needs “guidance” on that.
Ok. Now show it in video instead. It was an accident. The still frame looks bad, and it probably should have been called a yellow, but it didn’t meet the criteria for a red card.
If you think it still should be a red after all that, please explain why Messi doing the same thing on purpose wasn’t.
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I agree. Messi should also have received a red. The fact that he did not even get a yellow was a terrible call.
it dose not matter if it was an accident… he could have injured the player… either they are in control or they are just flailing out there like any one of us could
the usa is a fucking joke… fifa is a fucking joke… soccer is a great sport and these two loser entities are just making everything they touch worthless…
Except it does matter. Reckless unintentional fouls are still a yellow card.
I’m not going to disagree about either the US (government) in general or FIFA in specific though.
The rules are a red card can be issued for multiple Sending-off offences with one of those being Serious Foul Play.
“Serious foul play
A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play. Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force.”
International Football Association Board rules
“The Laws embody the unacceptability of unsafe play in their disciplinary phrases, e.g. ‘reckless challenge’ (caution = yellow card/YC) and ‘endangering the safety of an opponent’ or ‘using excessive force’ (sending-off = red card/RC).”
In this instance you can see how a referee would see this being beyond a reckless challenge given the potential serious injury that could have occurred.
Yes, a Red is about lunging at an opponent with excessive force in challenging for the ball. That is not what happened. He was moving sideways through the air and needed to put his foot down somewhere. His opponent was also moving sideways through the air and put his foot down in front of where Balogun was going to. If you watch the video, you can even see that the other player kicked Balogun’s foot FIRST, which changed the trajectory of Balogun’s leg, then put his leg in front of Balogun’s foot.
Sure, call it a yellow for careless play in being in the air without full control. But this was not reckless or violent.