{"id":216162,"date":"2026-07-07T01:41:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-lobbied-fifa-president-to-review-us-stars-world-cup-suspension-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T01:41:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:41:41","slug":"trump-lobbied-fifa-president-to-review-us-stars-world-cup-suspension-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-lobbied-fifa-president-to-review-us-stars-world-cup-suspension-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump lobbied FIFA president to review US star's World Cup suspension – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump<\/a> called Gianni Infantino to urge the FIFA president to review the controversial red card<\/a> issued July 1 to star U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team forward Folarin Balogun, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
Balogun’s red card and suspension for the next U.S. World Cup match was later reversed on July 5.<\/a>
The clearance of Balogun, the team’s top goal scorer and striker, gives the U.S. a major boost for its July 6 round of 16 match against Belgium<\/a> in Seattle. The red card \u2012 issued to Balogun in the World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina after his foot landed on an opponent’s ankle \u2012 drew widespread criticism<\/a> as too punitive.
Trump posted on Truth Social<\/a> after the reversal, thanking FIFA for “doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”
Trump and Infantino have built a friendly relationship<\/a> over the past year, with the president hosting the FIFA president multiple times at the White House and Infantino awarding Trump with FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize.<\/a>
A U.S. official, who discussed Trump’s call to Infantino on the condition of anonymity, said the president wanted to “better understand” why Balogun received a red card and a suspension. Trump made the call hours after the conclusion of the Bosnia-Herzegovina match.
The Trump administration also provided additional evidence to support a potential appeal of Balogun’s red card, the official said, though an appeal was never formally submitted. FIFA’s rules only allow for an appeal if games are added to the initial suspension.
FIFA cited the federation’s disciplinary rules in a statement on the highly unusual reversal and did not address Trump’s communication with Infantino.
FIFA’s regulations state, \u201cThe judicial body may decide to fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure.” The player is then subject to a probationary period in which that suspension is revoked.
“In line with article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the implementation of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year,” FIFA said about the Balogun decision. “If Folarin Balogun commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension shall be revoked and the sanction enforced without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infringement.”
FIFA invoked a similar provision to allow Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo to play<\/a> in the start of the 2026 World Cup\u00a0after he received a three-match ban for an elbow thrown in a 2025 World Cup qualifying match against Ireland.
The New York Times, which first reported Trump’s call to Infantino<\/a>, said attorneys with ties to Trump provided a three-page memo to the U.S. Soccer Federation suggesting that FIFA’s rules were vague enough to create grounds for an appeal of Balogun’s suspension. Legal avenues floated included invoking the rights of the United States to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, the sporting world\u2019s top arbitration body, the Times reported.
FIFA did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment on the role the White House played in the decision.
USA TODAY’s Nancy Armour contributed to this report.<\/em>
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump called Gianni Infantino to urge the FIFA president to review the controversial red card issued July 1 to star U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team forward Folarin Balogun, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.Balogun’s red card and suspension for the next U.S. World Cup match was later reversed on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-216162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}