(AFP) – The United States famously is less passionate about soccer than most countries, but with President Donald Trump in charge, the world’s game has turned into another diplomatic battleground. Trump, who has relished the US role as co-host of the World Cup, acknowledged he reached out to FIFA, which rescinded a red card handed to US star Folarin Balogun. Trump also cast aspersions on the reputation of the Brazilian referee who issued the red card, even while insisting that “I don’t like to create controversy.”
Much like when Trump imposed trade tariffs, belittled leaders, or questioned NATO, his intervention on the red card caused Europeans to close ranks. The foreign minister of Belgium, which now faces a full US squad in their knockout match Monday, called the FIFA U-turn “incomprehensible.” FIFA promptly rejected Belgium’s appeal. EU sports chief Glenn Micallef said such decisions “belong to sporting bodies, not politicians.” Balogun was handed the red card during a US victory against Bosnia, a staunchly pro-American country, where an X account backing the players described FIFA and the United States as a “mafia.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said that the United States got “screwed” by the red card, joked that the episode may come up at a NATO summit this week. “Maybe they’re trying to get an international incident,” Rubio said. Rubio, a sports lover more known for commentary on American football, said Belgium should be happy to play against a full US squad rather than have a tarnished match. “I just hope that the match will go on, everyone will be at full strength and the winner will be the winner,” Rubio said.
– Trump playbook –
Trump, with his motto of “America First,” has unabashedly brandished raw US power to get his way, even at the risk of annoying allies. He has threatened to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal and tried to neuter the International Criminal Court with sanctions on judges whose rulings the United States opposes. Trump said he raised the red card with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, who has allied himself closely with the Republican billionaire, renting space in Trump Tower in New York and even presenting the president with an inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize.”
“Trump has no integrity and of course he would try and use his position to influence the outcome,” posted Cyrus Janssen, an online commentator on world affairs. “It’s what he has done in every other situation in life, including when he tried to steal the 2020 election,” he said. Infantino said he told Trump that the review was independent. But the optics apparently were too much even for Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter, who resigned in 2015 after a US-backed corruption probe. “Football must never become a playground for political power,” Blatter posted.
– Long a political game –
The red card saga quickly generated viral internet memes. In one, Balogun responds to the red card by flashing a card of Trump. In another, the new FIFA-selected referee is… Rubio. Trump’s intervention brought cheers from his right-wing base, some of which would normally be quick to dismiss soccer as an effete foreign import. But even some Americans who are not fond of Trump questioned the red card.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an avid soccer fan, said Balogun was “cruelly” issued a red card although he stayed mum on Trump’s involvement. Brett Bruen, a former US diplomat often critical of Trump, said the United States had the right to register complaints and that it was not new for a head of state to weigh in. He said that Europeans did not show the same outrage at a suspension of a red card in the World Cup qualifiers against Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. “For years, Europeans aided and abided flagrant ethical flaws in the international football federation,” said Bruen, head of the Global Situation Room strategic communications firm. “So trying to paint presentation of a legitimate complaint as corruption is comical.”
The World Cup is no stranger to political overtones. In 1982, a Kuwaiti sheikh came onto the pitch and persuaded the referee to cancel a goal. And in 1969, Honduras and El Salvador fought a brief war as sentiments were stirred up by a World Cup qualifying match.
– Shaun TANDON
© 2024 AFP
