Trump managed to make the US even more disliked around the world by pressuring FIFA to suspend the red card given to their star player Falorin Balogun in the previous game that would have required him to sit out yesterday’s game with Belgium. I have not followed the games, have little knowledge about soccer, have not seen the foul in question, and so cannot judge if the red card was warranted or not. But I do know that reversing a red card ruling in highly unusual. Making it worse for FIFA was that Trump publicly bragged about calling on FIFA president Gianni Infantino to drop the suspension. Infantino, who has been sucking up to Trump in a big way, going to the extent of giving him a fake peace prize after Trump sulked about not getting the real one, is believed to have acquiesced to Trump’s wishes to allow Balogun to play.

This move caused widespread anger in the soccer world, not just in Belgium but also with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

Uefa vice-president Laura McAllister says there is a risk of “an absolute cesspit” of political interference in football after Folarin Balogun avoided a ban at the World Cup.

Balogun was expected to be suspended for the USA’s last-16 tie against Belgium after his red card against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

But the Monaco striker played against the Belgians after his one-game ban was suspended by Fifa following an intervention by US President Donald Trump.

Fifa’s decision led to widespread criticism, with Trump saying he had personally asked for a review of Balogun’s dismissal because he “didn’t think it was a foul”.

Uefa, European football’s governing body, expressed “disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision”.

Now former Wales international McAllister, a Uefa vice-president since 2023, says she is concerned by what the Balogun decision – and Trump’s involvement – could mean for football.

“You’re creating an absolute cesspit for the future because anyone can appeal,” she told BBC Radio Wales.

“Any political leader could potentially pick up the phone and say there’s a precedent for changing a punishment awarded to a player and I think it’s extremely dangerous.

That move by Trump and Infantino seemed to have backfired bigly with an energized Belgian team easily defeating the US.

The summer of soccer love is over for the USA’s World Cup squad after losing 4-1 to Belgium, and many US players were in tears after the final whistle. Two early goals from Charles De Ketelaere and some awful US defending allowed a third from Hans Vanaken. Romelu Lukaku added the final goal in the last seconds.
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Added to the embarrassment was the fact that much of the world will take joy in the US’ humiliation after the controversy over FIFA’s decision to suspend Folarin Balogun’s one-game ban following a red card in the Round of 32.

After the game, Belgian spectators and players wasted no time in mocking Trump.

Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, has yet to comment on the national team’s triumph, but the official Instagram account of his cat offered a sardonic, albeit indirect sign of satisfaction. Maximus, De Wever’s beloved cat, was shown lying on a rug holding a soft toy in the image of the US president. “I slept really well last night. And you?” reads the speech bubble in Dutch.
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Reporting from Kalmthout, De Standaard said crowds booed images of the Americans and Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa, which took the decision to lift the suspension of Balogun, after Trump’s lobbying. In Brussels, supporters set fire to an American flag.

The retired Belgium defender Philippe Albert, a centre-back for Newcastle United in the 1990s, described the Red Devils’ victory as “a real slap in the face for Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino”.
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Amid celebrations, the national team’s social media post after the emphatic 4-1 victory saying “Overturn this” went viral. Also gaining vast numbers of likes and clicks were clips of the teams on-pitch celebrations mocking Donald Trump’s dancing. After Romelu Lukaku scored the final goal for Belgium, the team celebrated by imitating Trump’s stiff arm-shuffling moves to YMCA. The midfielder Axel Witsel was quoted by the Dutch public broadcaster VRT as saying it had been a group idea.

Here they are doing the mocking dance.

Trump does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize but he does deserve some credit for uniting almost the whole world, even if it is only against him.

Oh dear. Such a shame to see the US lose at football after their insanely embarrassing president cheated for them. Still, it really brought the world together. The last time this many people cheered on a Belgian resistance, it was 1914 and the Germans had just crossed the Meuse. As you’ll be aware, the USA were dumped out of their own World Cup on Monday night by a wholly superior Belgium, after Donald Trump boasted that he’d personally intervened in three phone calls with Fifa president Gianni Infantino to get the red card shown to USA striker Folarin Balogun rescinded. Yes, the US cheats at football. Pass it on.
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As he made very clear, Trump really wet his Depends over Balogun’s ban, and spent Monday gibbering to the news cameras that he’d acted hideously inappropriately over the weekend by interfering because “I’m good at this stuff”. 
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Weird that Trump supposedly understands such a lot about sport, but doesn’t get that if you do something outrageously unfair, your opponents will so often use that injustice to fire themselves up and beat you. 

FIFA is an extremely corrupt organization and I suspect that Infantino has stacked its governing body with cronies so that his own position is secure, however much he is vilified.