NEW YORK – “Thank you to Fifa for doing what was right and reversing a great injustice!”
You can probably tell who that quote is attributable to, but if you hadn’t guessed, it comes from a Donald Trump post on X after USA striker Folarin Balogun had his World Cup red card suspended so that he can play against Belgium in the last-16.
“USA! USA! USA!” echoed the official White House account. It has been a full weekend programme of nausea-inducing, stars-and-stripes-soaked patriotism across the nation but this tops the lot.
Suspended is the operative word here – Balogun’s punishment for his sending off against Bosnia and Herzegovina has been pushed back a year. Not overturned, nor should it be for stepping on the foot of Tarik Muharemovic. It looked worse in slow motion and Balogun felt hard-done-by – but that is not why this has happened.
In other words, it is Fifa making it up as they go along. Simply, they are doing it to appease the co-hosts, to placate the President and ultimately, because they can. The Belgian FA say they are “astonished” – they probably shouldn’t be.
