Donald Trump hailed FIFA President Gianni Infantino for helping to lift US player Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension, a decision that drew criticism from football fans. Balogun received a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina; a decision would see him miss out on his side’s Round of 16 game against Belgium.
But the US President reached out to Infantino, asking to review the decision. FIFA overturned the suspension, allowing Balongun to participate in the match. Even though the Belgian FA and UEFA protested the decision, Balogun was allowed to play, but couldn’t prevent a defeat for the US.
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‘It’s so much better the way it worked out’: Donald Trump
At a FIFA reception event in New York, Trump praised Infantino while standing next to him. “Gianni made yet another of his many good decisions,” he said.
Trump claimed that FIFA made the right decision, as it would have sparked controversy if the US had lost without Balogun.
“It’s so much better the way it worked out, because there’s no controversy. They won the game, and our team had all of its players,” he said.
“You made another great decision. If you think about, I know you’ll never get credit.
“Think of it. If he didn’t allow him, and they lost, they’d say we would have won the game if we had our best player.”
After his country’s exit from the World Cup, Balogun spoke about the incident in an interview with CBS Mornings.
“My initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team. But when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy,” he said.
“I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it was something that’s so unique.
“But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could. But it was difficult – a lot of outside noise, and that’s hard to avoid.”
Balogun also revealed that he learned about the decision on the team bus. “It was confusing as the team was practising without me in the team. I almost played a supporting role to keep the morale,” he said.
“When we found out on the team bus, everyone was screaming and shouting. It was a pretty intense bus ride to the practice field,” he added.
