TRUMP CAUGHT PRESSURING FIFA AT THE WORLD CUP
Trump admitted Monday that he personally called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to demand a review of the red card shown to US striker Folarin Balogun, and FIFA folded. The governing body suspended Balogun’s automatic one-match ban on Sunday even though its own officials had said the punishment could not be appealed under FIFA’s disciplinary code.
This was not one friendly phone call. Sources told the Guardian that Trump made three separate calls to FIFA starting Wednesday to force the reversal. Trump then attacked the Brazilian referee Raphael Claus from the Oval Office, calling him “very suspect” and telling reporters to go dig into his record.
The backlash was immediate. Belgium, which plays the US Monday night for a quarterfinal spot, is furious. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter put it bluntly: “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies.”
Trump is the host of this World Cup, and he just showed every country on Earth that the tournament’s rules bend when he picks up the phone. If the US wins Monday night, Trump will have personally tainted it.
Source: Really American
This was not one friendly phone call. Sources told the Guardian that Trump made three separate calls to FIFA starting Wednesday to force the reversal. Trump then attacked the Brazilian referee Raphael Claus from the Oval Office, calling him “very suspect” and telling reporters to go dig into his record.
The backlash was immediate. Belgium, which plays the US Monday night for a quarterfinal spot, is furious. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter put it bluntly: “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies.”
Trump is the host of this World Cup, and he just showed every country on Earth that the tournament’s rules bend when he picks up the phone. If the US wins Monday night, Trump will have personally tainted it.
Source: Really American
