Matt Hughes
speaker
74 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 10 Jul
Matt Hughes’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Today in Focus · How Trump’s intervention tarnished the World Cup – The Latest · 10 Jul 2026
podcast
The United States are probably the biggest losers from this.
It raises serious questions about what role the FIFA president, Gianfantino, had in the process and if he was effectively letting Donald Trump dictate policy.
He has been really quiet and we haven't seen or heard from him over the whole course of the World Cup, really.
Nor has he attended any matches, which is unusual.
No, he didn't go to any game until one this week.
But he certainly made his presence felt.
Initially, behind the scenes, last week, when he took it upon himself to try and get a red card that was shown to the United States as star striker, Florian Balogun overturned.
He was sent off against Bosnia in the last 32.
It was seen as a pretty harsh red card.
And the rules, just to explain, the rules of FIFA competitions, World Cups, if you're sent off, you get an automatic card.
one-match suspension.
It can be increased if it's seen as a particularly violent challenge.
And crucially, there's no right of appeal.
So the United States accepted it.
He was going to miss the last 16 games against Belgium.
However, behind the scenes, Donald Trump, Andrew Giuliani, the chair of the World Cup task force, were furiously putting pressure on FIFA to get this red card lifted.
Gosh.
And they acquiesced last Sunday.
It was announced he would be available to play.
And their reasoning was that the red card wasn't overturned, but the suspension was suspended for 12 months, basically.
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