The President of the United States called the head of FIFA to get a red card reversed. FIFA reversed it. The US then lost to Belgium 4-1.
That’s the entire story. Everything else is texture.
Folarin Balogun picked up a red card on July 1 against Bosnia-Herzegovina — stepped on an ankle, automatic one-game suspension, out for the Round of 16. Standard soccer consequences. Then Trump called Gianni Infantino and said he didn’t think it was a foul. Trump, by his own account, hadn’t known what a red card was until someone explained it would bench Balogun for the Belgium match — at which point he picked up the phone.
FIFA invoked Article 27 of its disciplinary code, convened an 18-person committee, and lifted the suspension. Infantino called it an independent process. Trump posted on Truth Social: “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Belgium appealed Balogun’s eligibility. FIFA denied the appeal. UEFA called the whole arrangement “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable” and said FIFA “crossed a red line.” EU lawmakers called for an investigation of Infantino.
The red card was marginal — there’s a reasonable case it shouldn’t have been issued at all. Soccer has disciplinary review processes for exactly that kind of situation. What it doesn’t have, as a formal procedure, is the host country’s head of state calling the federation president to flag a call he disagreed with after learning what a red card is. The outcome may have been defensible. The mechanism wasn’t.
Balogun played. He had his best chance in the 82nd minute, a left-footed shot that Thibaut Courtois saved cleanly. He was subbed off in the 92nd minute having not scored. Charles De Ketelaere scored twice before halftime. Malik Tillman pulled one back at 31 minutes, briefly. Then goalkeeper Patrick Freese fumbled outside the box, left Hans Vanaken an empty net, and Belgium added a fourth from Romelu Lukaku in stoppage time. The final was 4-1. It was not particularly close.
What the scoreboard said about the intervention: nothing. Which makes sense, because the intervention was never about the scoreboard. Trump didn’t call FIFA because he had a read on Belgium’s defensive shape or a view on the pay-to-play problem that’s kept the American talent pipeline shallow for decades. He called because someone told him a player couldn’t play, and he wanted the player to play. The political logic was clean. The soccer logic was beside the point.
After the match, Belgium’s official account posted on X: “Overturn this. 🧏♂️ #USABEL”
https://x.com/BelRedDevils/status/2074315204704240101
Belgian players did Trump’s signature fist-pump in the locker room. It was the most efficient trolling possible. They let what happened on the field do most of the work.
I was out running Thursday morning, the lakefront mostly empty, going over the Belgium preview in my head and genuinely wondering if Balogun’s reinstatement shifted anything. I should have been thinking about Courtois.
The President used real political capital to win a procedural soccer argument. Belgium used soccer to win the game.
