How Trump’s intervention tarnished the World Cup – The Latest
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This is The Guardian.
The United States are probably the biggest losers from this.
I said, I think it should be reviewed because I watched the play. And he didn't do anything wrong.
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.
From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoth. There's just over a week to go until the World Cup winner is crowned next Sunday. And it has been a wonderful tournament in terms of football, but it has also been a tournament full of political controversy. Matt Hughes, you're our global business sport correspondent. Thanks for joining us. Donald Trump had been largely quiet as president and host nation of this tournament, but he has made one very vocal intervention that has drawn a lot of controversy. What happened?
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. So he's put on probation. It's never happened before during a World Cup. I think there have been 189 red cards in World Cups going back to 1930. None of them have ever been frozen in this way. So it was completely unprecedented.
So this very unprecedented intervention from Trump, I mean, all eyes were on that US-Belgium match earlier this week. I think had the US won, there would have been, you know, serious questions about that behind closed doors dealings between Trump and FIFA. But mercifully, Belgium absolutely thrashed them for one. But it has, I think, tarnished the reputation of the US as a host nation. Do you agree? Do you think that will be the legacy of this tournament?
Yeah, it has. In the space of 24 hours, the USA went from being globally popular and people like to see hosts do well, it's good for the tournament, but they suddenly became pilloried and everyone was supporting Belgium and taking delight in their 4-1 victory. So while FIFA may have dodged a bullet in a difficult legal action from the Belgian Federation if they'd have been knocked out, I reckon the United States are probably the biggest losers from this. And he raises serious questions about what role the FIFA president, Gianfantino, had in the process and if he was effectively letting Donald Trump dictate policy.
Gianni Infantino is another man who comes out terribly from all of this. As you say, that sort of behind the scenes dealing that Trump openly acknowledged in that Oval Office press conference earlier this week. I mean, even the former controversial FIFA president Sepp Blatter has criticised Infantino for this. Do you think this could be career ending for Infantino?
I mean, in any other walk of life, in any other sport, it probably would be. But the way FIFA works, he's protected. It's a one-member, one-vote organisation. There's 208 countries, and essentially, FIFA make the vast majority of them all their money.
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