DONALD Trump has confirmed he spoke to Fifa boss Gianni Infantino about the red card shown to US striker Folarin Balogun, claiming the referee “is a little bit suspect”.
Balogun was sent off after VAR reviewed a challenge he made in the last-32 match against Bosnia, with the dismissal thought to have meant an automatic ban for Monday night’s last-16 tie against Belgium.
Trump has now confirmed he personally lobbied Infantino at an event on Monday, telling the Fifa president that Balogun’s challenge “was not a foul”.
Trump said at the Oval Office on Monday: “I spoke to Gianni, who’s highly respected.
“I saw the play and I’m a person that loves sports and was a good athlete, and I understand sports really well, really well and 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.
“These were two great athletes that got tangled up and this referee, who is a little bit suspect, if you check his past. I don’t want to say that, because I don’t like to create controversy, but very suspect.
“He made a call that nobody could believe. He (Balogun) didn’t do anything wrong and he’s our best player, or one of our best players… and he (the referee) gave him a red card.
“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 (Infantino) and by the way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold.”
Trump added: “I had nothing to do with the decision. What I did have to do is, I said, ‘I think it should be reviewed’, because I watched the play, and he didn’t do anything wrong.
“By the way, if he did, I’d feel differently, probably. If he punched him in the face, if he did something wrong.”
He went on: “In this case, he didn’t do anything wrong. Two people ran into each other, and by the way, if you look at that game, there were ten instances where it was much rougher than that.”
Trump said: “No matter what happened, you have to let them use their best players, and 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. 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.”
Fifa's statutes prohibit political interference in matters relating to its national associations, but it has not yet commented on how it came to the decision to suspend Balogun’s ban.
Belgium have appealed against the decision to overturn the ban, while UEFA said it “crossed a line”.
