‘I didn’t think it was a foul’: Trump says he asked FIFA president for review of controversial red card

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he personally asked FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to review the decision to give a red card and one-game ban to Team USA star striker Folarin Balogun — a remarkable intervention that sparked a torrent of controversy at the World Cup.

FIFA on Sunday announced that Balogun would be eligible to play in the Round of 16 against Belgium Monday night, igniting questions around the integrity of the tournament.

“All I did was ask for a review. I didn’t say, ‘You have to do this,’” Trump said from the Oval Office, adding that he “didn’t think it was a foul.” He referred to the incident as “two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other.”

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Trump said of the US player.

The comments represent the first detailed account from Trump on his conversation with Infantino, with whom he has a close relationship. It also represented a small part of a broader US campaign. A source familiar with the matter told CNN that White House World Cup task force head Andrew Giuliani, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other US officials were involved in a full-court press to try to convince FIFA to undo the decision.

“I didn’t tell him what to do, I can’t tell him what to do,” Trump said, adding that an independent committee “made the right decision.”

Infantino also addressed the controversy in a lengthy statement posted on X, confirming the call with Trump but asserting that the decision on Balogun’s suspension came from an independent FIFA Disciplinary Committee.

“I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup with the President of the United States, and on this matter, I did receive a call from President Donald Trump, just as I receive calls from heads of state, government officials, football stakeholders and business executives from around the world on many different issues,” Infantino said in the statement.

“During our conversation, I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies. That is how FIFA’s system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold.”

Giuliani told ESPN that discussions about how to help USA Soccer about how to appeal the suspension began immediately after Balogun’s ejection and insisted the effort was limited to that — rather than trying to affect FIFA’s disciplinary committee.

“We put our heads together,” Giuliani recalled, “and kind of looked at it and said, ‘Well, there has to be way to correct this injustice.’”

Trump called the referee’s integrity into question, saying the referee was a “little bit suspect” as he encouraged reporters to “check his past.”

The president’s comments are likely to inflame the controversy surrounding the red card, which sparked debate over whether it was warranted from the moment it was shown.

Controversial from the start

When the play happened during Wednesday night’s game, the referee in the match did not rule it a foul, instead appearing to decide that it was a fair coming together of players who were chasing after the ball.

It took the intervention of the video assistant referee to call attention to whether Balogun had committed a foul. The referee was shown slow motion replays of the incident, something that is out of protocol with video review in World Cup matches, and those replays showed Balogun’s spikes catching the ankle of the Bosnian player.

It was then decided it was a red card for “serious foul play,” sending Balogun off the pitch and raising questions about whether proper process had been followed or if the decision was too harsh.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was among those who had openly criticized the red card decision, lamenting Sunday on his “Morning Pitch” video stream that Balogun was “cruelly sent off.”

On Monday, after a reporter noted that Mamdani hadn’t commented on FIFA’s reversal, he posted a well-known meme of European soccer manager Jose Mourinho, captioned: “I prefer really not to speak. If I speak — big trouble. Big trouble. I don’t want to be in big trouble.”

Describing the call as “horrible” and “unfair,” Trump said that if Balogun hadn’t been able to play, it would have been a “big stain” on the tournament.

Trump’s red card knowledge

A US official told CNN earlier Monday that Trump was simply seeking to “better understand the reason why a red card was given and why there was a suspension.” And while the president told reporters in the Oval Office “I understand sports really well,” he also suggested he was unaware that a red card meant the player would be unable to compete in the next match.

“I didn’t know what that meant – I didn’t think it meant much. And then I started hearing that that means you can’t play in the next game,” he said.

The US official also told CNN that the US government provided FIFA with “additional evidence” for the appeal process, though they declined to specify the substance of that evidence.

“I had nothing to do with the decision,” Trump said Monday.

For its part, the Royal Belgium Football Association filed an appeal of FIFA’s decision to allow Balogun to play in Monday night’s match. But FIFA quickly denied it, deciding that Belgium was not a party to the proceedings and had no standing, as the decision happened during a game between the United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Trump is expected to be aboard Air Force One en route to Turkey for the NATO Summit as Team USA faces Belgium – also a NATO member – on Monday evening. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio joked that the controversy might be brought up at the summit, adding that he believed it was “the right decision” to overturn the striker’s suspension.

“Maybe it’s turning into an international incident. Maybe we’ll bring it up at NATO tomorrow when we’re there with the Belgians and everybody else,” he quipped when asked about the matter during a photo spray with the Chilean Foreign Minister.

This developing story has been updated with additional reporting.

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CNN’s Catherine Nicholls, Kyle Feldscher, Adam Cancryn, Jennifer Hansler and Aleks Kiosk contributed to this report.