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Millions of Americans have been learning the rules of soccer recently, and last week, many were shocked by the harshness of the sport’s penalty system (and the effectiveness of “flopping”).
Folarin Balogun — the US men’s team’s top scorer in the World Cup tournament — received a red card after accidentally stepping on the calf of a Bosnia and Herzegovina player, who proceeded to writhe around on the ground as though he’d been mortally wounded.
The theatrics worked, and the US played the rest of the game a man down, and Balogun was also to be suspended from the team’s next match.
Yeah, a multi-game punishment for a split second of incidental contact (the Bosnian player was completely uninjured, by the way) struck many viewers as excessive.
And it seems that one of those viewers was none other than Donald Trump.
In a move that’s left the social media soccer community divided (it’s basically US vs. the world), FIFA officials decided to let Balogun play in tonight’s match against Belgium after receiving a call from Trump.
“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump said in a statement on social media on Sunday.
Obviously, that’s more than a little sketchy — but so was the call against Balogun.
Yes, it’s a complex situation, one in which people who are usually highly critical of corruption within FIFA and the Trump administration are conceding that the ends may have justified the means this time.
“FIFA is corrupt. But that doesn’t mean reinstating Balo is a result of said corruption,” wrote media personality Eric July, adding:
“It was a terrible, tournament altering call. They broke their own protocol in order to issue it in the first place.
Leaving it as such would’ve been more evident of the corruption.”
The Belgians, of course, beg to differ.
In fact, the Belgian government has reportedly “lawyered up” with plans to appeal FIFA’s decision to reinstate Balogun.
“I didn’t know that in the offices of FIFA the fifth of July was the first of April in Europe,” Belgium coach Rudi Garcia said in a statement.
“The Belgian federation does not defend itself, it does not protect the national team. She defends football in general, she defends her integrity, her ethics. I think it’s the first time in the history of the World Cup that there is this kind of decision.”
Some fans have gone so far as to urge Belgium to forfeit the match to defend the integrity of the tournament.
Others have noted that the Belgian team should want to play the US team at full strength, as they otherwise never know if they would have won in a fair contest.
Needless to say, it’s a messy situation all around. But hey, at least American interest in soccer is at an all-time high!
Donald Trump’s Red Card Reversal: Huge Win For Team USA or Shocking Instance of … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.