FIFA, Trump and Balogun: The scandal that shook the World Cup
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Athletic FC.
Hello and welcome to The Athletic FC podcast with me, Ian Irving. FIFA's decision to suspend Florian Balogun's ban for the USA's round of 16 clash with Belgium shook the World Cup. Donald Trump's call to FIFA president Gianni Infantino is now one of the most infamous moments in tournament history. But how did we get here? And has FIFA surrendered the World Cup's integrity? Hello, welcome along. Big talking point, big story list to get our teeth into today. Keris Jones is with me here in the studio in London and also joining us on the line from the USA are the two men who broke this world-exclusive story for The Athletic. It's Adam Crafton and Dan Sheldon. Undoubtedly, this was a A story that transcended the World Cup, transcended the sport.
How did The Athletic break the Balogun ban suspension story and what happened first?
It was reported on the front page, we're told, of 35 national newspapers globally. I mean, Adam, what was it like to break it?
A bit weird, a bit exciting, fun. I was going through the airport as I was flying to Seattle on Monday morning for the US game from New York. And you sort of see the news channels up around JFK. And you kind of saw Fox and NBC, kind of their morning shows leading on a soccer story. But in many ways, it's not a soccer story. It's a Trump story. So it's kind of there every day in many ways. But, you know, it was... By that stage, it was even, you know, Belgium are appealing against the suspension of a ban. I mean, it just all became so crazy in that kind of 24 hours. And it's actually quite nice now to sort of step back and sort of look at what happened, how it happened and what the future ramifications of it might be.
Yeah, absolutely. And that's what we'll do on the course of this podcast, of course. I mean, Dan, it's an exclusive for The Athletic, a world exclusive, like I said a moment ago. It sort of transcended the World Cup and football, though, as well, hasn't it? I mean, to see the reaction from stateside, again, must have been a very interesting thing to observe, like Adam was saying there.
yeah similar to what adam said really i think that the trump involvement just took it to a whole new whole new scale right i mean he's arguably the most famous person in the world behind cristiano ronaldo's instagram followers so i think yeah i think being here for it you it but then at the same time it just moved so quickly like so much was happening like that day the story kind of broke then it went massive and then as Adam was just talking to you know then Belgium started like they released their statement a few hours later then it just snowballed and snowballed and snowballed until the US team eventually played.
Yeah look what you've done you two by covering this story the way that you did I mean let's rewind a little bit then Adam let's go back to the start of all of this and just establish the story for anyone who's been living under a rock the last week or so I mean what is this controversy all about fundamentally?
I mean, it'll be a great quiz question at some point. Who was the Bosnian defender who Balogun actually did the challenge? It was during the US's round of 32 game against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many people, I think, thought the red card given by the Brazilian referee, Rafael Claus, was pretty harsh. But the US went on to win the game. But then there became this sort of kind of big national US discussion of, hang on, wait, in soccer, you don't just get sent off, but then they take you out of the next game as well. And that was kind of a bit of the mainstream discussion that was going on. Because you have to remember with the US, this is a country where they prioritized getting the sports stars on the field.
And I think that was a real kind of cultural point of difference during those few days. And it was probably as early as Friday night, and the story broke on Sunday, that we started to get the first soundings of... US soccer are trying to do something here to try and kind of wriggle out of this for Bat to get Balogun on the field. Because in the immediate aftermath of the challenge, Pochettino had said it was never a red card and Tyler Adams had kind of moaned about the fact that there was no appeal.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:56
2
How did The Athletic break the Balogun ban suspension story and what happened first?
0:56–6:39
3
What were the initial reactions in the US and why did the story escalate so quickly?
6:39–23:49
4
How did US Soccer and the White House coordinate efforts to challenge the red card?
23:49–43:17
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from The Athletic FC Podcast
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