Note: This story first appeared in The Beautiful Game by CNN Sports, our daily newsletter on all things World Cup. To subscribe, click here.
Congratulations, everyone. We made it 24 days without this World Cup having to do much with Donald Trump. Yet this morning, despite all the amazing goals that have been scored and all the dramatic storylines that have been told, the very integrity of the tournament is being questioned because of the apparent actions of one man and his too-close-for-comfort relationship with the FIFA president.
“I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump told reporters on Monday about an incident which has gripped the world.
You can probably tell from that intro that I don’t like the fact this brilliant, whirlwind of a World Cup has been dragged down by this sort of controversy. It was all going so well. It felt as though even politicians couldn’t ruin it this time.
But fear not, it won’t be all we chat about in this edition of The Beautiful Game. After all, I still need to tell you why I was at a London pub until just past 4 a.m. last night (it’s currently 9 a.m. local time) and we need to discuss whether the USA can keep winning.
