'I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t think it meant much,' said the US president
Donald Trump has admitted to lobbying FIFA to rescind a one-game ban for one of America’s star footballers at this year’s World Cup, amid growing anger at a decision that has thrown the world’s most popular sports competition into chaos.
In a speech on Monday, the US president said that he had urged football’s governing body to lift Folarin Balogun’s one-match ban, which the 25-year-old forward automatically received after being sent off during America’s 2-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina last Wednesday.
“He [Balogun] is our best player, or one of our best players, a very vital player,” Trump said on Monday. “And he [the referee] gave him a red card. I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can’t play in the next game. I said, boy, that’s a big, you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair.”
“It’s one thing to penalise somebody for the game, but how do you penalise 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.”
