Trump hails FIFA’s red card reversal for Team USA’s Balogun in World Cup

Sports & Gaming Trump hails FIFA’s red card reversal for Team USA’s Balogun in World Cup Comments: by Ashleigh Fields - 07/05/26 2:22 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ashleigh Fields - 07/05/26 2:22 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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President Trump on Sunday hailed FIFA’s decision to reverse a red card handed to Team USA’s Folarin Balogun during the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The red card would have marked a one-game suspension for the USA’s 25-year-old star athlete, leaving him absent from Monday’s match against Belgium.

“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice,” Trump, who received the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize last year, wrote in a Sunday post on Truth Social, lauding the red-card suspension.

The White House reportedly called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review Balogun’s red card, sports commentator Ben Jacobs reported on Sunday. But FIFA sources told him it would not affect the independent decision from the disciplinary panel.

Balogun was reprimanded for fouling Tarik Muharemovic.

Team USA could not appeal the red card, but FIFA’s governing body is entitled to changing its decision after review.

“In line with article 27 of the FIFA disciplinary code, the implementation of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year. If Folarin Balogun commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension shall be revoked and the sanction enforced without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infringement,” read a Sunday statement from the governing body and World Cup organizer, according to a report from The Athletic.

As a result, Balogun will now play in the World Cup round-of-16 match with Team USA.

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