Full disclosure: I have very little knowledge of the game of soccer, and only a mild jingoistic interest in it when Team USA wins in its international competitions. Until the past week, I couldn't tell a red card from a red wedding, except that the howls of fury for the former easily exceeded those of the latter. My biggest takeaway from futbol is that LeBron James learned his ref-manipulating flops from the best in the business.
With all of that said, however, even I have caught a mild case of World Cup fever, as the American men's team has delivered a surprisingly dominant performance – so far. The team won its first knockout-round win in over 20 years last week, but lost its top striker, Folarin Balogun, to a red-card disqualification in the match. That meant a one-game suspension just as the Belgians prepared to face the US with hopes of sending the host team back to its television sets. Supposedly, no appeal of the verdict was possible.
And then Donald Trump entered the chat. Earlier today, Trump acknowledged that he asked FIFA for an extraordinary review of the DQ, claiming that the referee was "suspect" and that no foul actually took place:
President Trump confirms he asked FIFA to review the red card suspension of U.S. men's national team striker Folarin Balogun, calling the decision "very unfair."
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 6, 2026
"It wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction," Trump says. “It’s one thing to penalize somebody for the game,… pic.twitter.com/PauNmPJRE0
"It wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction," Trump says. “It’s one thing to penalize somebody for the game, but how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet? It's very unfair. You can't do that. So, yes, I asked for a review by FIFA.”
The Wall Street Journal has the backstory on Trump's intervention. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trump's World Cup task force executive director Andrew Giuliani pressed Trump to get involved, pointing out that the DQ would infuriate Americans and possibly damage the event among domestic fans and viewers. That was enough to motivate Trump:
In the 24 hours after the game, as U.S. Soccer publicly bemoaned that it had no recourse to appeal the decision (and no obvious replacement for Balogun on the roster), Trump picked up the phone to the one person he knew had the power to put things right.
Infantino has ruled soccer’s governing body since 2016 and courted Trump for nearly as long. He has been a regular guest of the Oval Office and popped up alongside Trump at events ranging from a UFC fight in Miami to the Gaza peace summit in Egypt. And when the two men spoke, Trump urged Infantino to review the Balogun call.
The FIFA president agreed to look into it, but didn’t commit to overturning it, one of the people said.
By the time Trump and Infantino spoke again days later, however, Infantino was ready to tell him that the suspension was being lifted, some of the people said. FIFA had deployed a little known provision, known as Article 27, which it says allows its Disciplinary Committee to exercise its discretion when reviewing sanctions.
Was this a total shock? My friend Olivier Knox, who really does know soccer, had joked about this very scenario, only to find out it came to pass:
I did not mean for this to be taken literally. https://t.co/Tt9tGhhKkO
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) July 5, 2026
FIFA apparently plans to review this further after the World Cup, and has put Balugon on a one-year Double Secret Probation on ankle-stepping. For now and for the rest of the tournament, Balogun will take the field for Team USA, though. And the Belgians are very, very unhappy to face a full Team USA roster:
The Royal Belgian Football Association clarified its position on the playing status of United States men's national team striker Folarin Balogun and said it will "challenge the player's eligibility for the upcoming match." ...
The RBFA originally said it was "astonished" by the decision given it contradicts guidelines laid out by FIFA and World Cup organizers.
The federation followed up Monday to provide an account of what has happened behind the scenes from its side, saying it wrote to FIFA asking for details on the process behind suspending the ban and what next steps are potentially available[.]
What are the available next steps? Maybe someone needs to check Article 27 after its ink dries in the rulebook. Or, perhaps, the Belgians can call Infantino and make him a better deal than he got from Trump. Toss in a waffle and some pommes frites, and I'd bet they might at least get Balogun off the pitch for a five-minute penalty just for making them look bad.
As I admit freely, I'm no expert in futbol, but the replay of this incident doesn't look malicious or intentional at all. Trump's characterization is accurate – two players went for the ball and got tangled up. Even if this was interference, it's hardly the stuff of disqualifications, especially in a global championship series like the World Cup. Time Magazine's Sean Gregory agrees and calls the reversal "common sense," perhaps one of the few times that Time will agree with Trump all year:
The thing is, Belgium really shouldn’t have a beef here. What Balogun did on the field against Bosnia did not at all scream “eject this guy from this game and make him sit the next.” Red cards, as opposed to yellow cards, are given for the worst on-field behaviors, including spitting, biting, receiving a second yellow card in the same match (Balogun did not have a prior yellow against Bosnia), denying an opposing player an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by committing a handball offense, violent conduct, and what’s known in the laws of the game as “serious foul play,” which is defined as “a tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality” or lunging at an opponent “in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent.”
Balogun was red-carded, after a video review, for stepping on the ankle of Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic while going for a ball. Officials felt the replay showed Balogun was “dangerous in his play,” which makes sense when you look at these sort of high-speed contact plays, frame by frame, in super slow motion. Anything can look bad. But Balogun clearly did not have serious foul play on his mind.
Gregory also points out that Article 27 has been used in this manner before:
Still, the red made little sense. But FIFA realized it got it wrong and corrected the error. Balogun is under a year-long probationary period: If he commits another similar infraction, the suspension is back and he may receive even further harsh penalties. Article 27 does have precedent. It was used to defer the final two games of Cristiano Ronaldo’s three-match ban following a World Cup-qualifier red card, to make him fully eligible at the start of the World Cup. Nicolás Otamendi, of Argentina, and Ecuadoran midfielder Moisés Caicedo had one-game bans deferred for red cards in qualifiers, which also permitted them to play in World Cup opening matches.
Looks like Belgium can scream about Balogun's red card until it is blue in its collective face, but it will have to face the full roster of Team USA tonight nonetheless. Trump won his round of the World Cup, although he did try to downplay his role somewhat in today's presser. Senator Ted Cruz didn't read the room or his ally at the dais when attempting to hand Trump the W:
Senator Ted Cruz to Trump:
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 6, 2026
On behalf of all Americans, thank you for getting rid of that ridiculous red card. pic.twitter.com/BJv0Ci5l8C
Awkward!
Update: Looks like Belgium has run out of options:
#BREAKING: FIFA says Belgium's appeal against Balogun decision is 'inadmissible' pic.twitter.com/aVXblycyUS
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 6, 2026
This all looks as though FIFA understands that the red card was nonsense from the beginning, as Gregory points out. In the future, perhaps this will inspire the league to have a formal mechanism for appealing DQs and suspensions. The idea that a referee – and especially a replay referee – can DQ a player from a later game without any recourse to review of that decision is absurd.
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