FIFA President Gianni Infantino made a decision that could reshape Team USA’s World Cup run, and he was swiftly hailed by the president for it.
On Sunday, FIFA announced it had suspended the red card shown to striker Folarin Balogun in the USA’s match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, overturning a decision that would have ruled him out of the next fixture.
The ruling clears the 25-year-old to feature in Monday’s last-16 match against Belgium, with a potential place in the quarter-finals on the line.
“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” President Donald Trump, 80, wrote on Truth Social following the announcement.
Yet while the president welcomed the decision on Truth Social, it quickly sparked online scrutiny, with some questioning the unusually close ties between FIFA leadership and the U.S. administration, as well as the optics of the ruling itself.
Sports broadcaster Ben Jacobs reported on X that FIFA’s decision followed a direct call from the White House requesting a review of Balogun’s red card. FIFA reportedly insisted that any White House involvement “could not affect the decision,” saying it was made by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, which invoked Article 27 to suspend the sanction.
The Daily Beast has reached out to FIFA and the White House for comment.
“To everyone characterizing this as corruption, I’d like to remind you that each FIFA Peace Prize comes with a Get Out of Red Card Free,” one user commented on X, referring to a prize FIFA’s president gave to Trump last year.
Infantino had lobbied for Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, but after the president was overlooked, he quickly devised an alternative, creating a prize that was later presented in December in an apparent effort to smooth relations ahead of the World Cup in the United States, according to a New York Times report.
At the time, Trump described the trophy—a set of gold hands holding up a globe—as “one of the great honors” of his life.
Other users online shared AI-generated images and videos of Balogun showing the referee who made the decision a card featuring Trump’s face, joking that it would overrule the red card issued during the match.
Some users pointed to the irony of the situation, noting that Trump’s celebration of Balogun’s return came despite his own long-standing opposition to birthright citizenship. The striker was born in New York while his parents were visiting from London.
“Possible corruption and cheating aside, hilarious that the Trump administration were allegedly pushing hard to reinstate a player who is a literal birthright citizen,” one user wrote, adding, “His pregnant mother gave birth to him on a visit because the airline wouldn’t let her board her return flight.”
In a statement, the Royal Belgian Football Association said it was “astonished” by FIFA’s decision to suspend the red card and allow the striker to feature in Monday’s match against Belgium.
Balogun is the first American player to score multiple goals in a single World Cup match in 96 years.
