{"id":797,"date":"2026-07-06T12:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T07:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=797"},"modified":"2026-07-06T12:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T07:59:17","slug":"trump-called-fifas-infantino-over-balogun-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=797","title":{"rendered":"Trump called FIFA&#039;s Infantino over Balogun suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/WM_nVt2UGFxsmOCbbfvKkHH1omo=\/0x60:5485x3146\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/05\/1783284627082.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>President Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino about U.S. striker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/05\/folarin-balogun-cleared-usmnt-belgium-fifa-red-card\" target=\"_blank\">Folarin Balogun&#8217;s<\/a> suspension before the governing body lifted it, a U.S. official tells Axios.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>Direct presidential intervention in a FIFA disciplinary matter would be highly unusual, and the reversal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/02\/us-bosnia-herzegovina-world-cup-balogun\" target=\"_blank\">allows Balogun to play<\/a> in the knockout stage.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>The president&#8217;s involvement illustrates how closely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump<\/a> is following the U.S. men&#8217;s national team&#8217;s World Cup campaign and highlights potential political influence on international sports governance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>The U.S. official said Trump spoke with Infantino because the president wanted to better understand the reason why a red card was given to Balogun and why the one-game suspension was imposed.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The U.S. government provided additional evidence that was used in the appeal process, which the official noted is run by an independent board.<\/li>\n<li>The official added that ultimately the correct and proper outcome was achieved.<\/li>\n<li>Trump in a Truth Social post earlier Sunday thanked FIFA for &#8220;doing what was right,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/%40realDonaldTrump\/posts\/116868490571213527\" target=\"_blank\">saying<\/a> the decision reversed &#8220;a great injustice!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The New York Times first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/05\/us\/trump-fifa-balogun-world-cup.html\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a> news of Trump&#8217;s intervention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Flashback: <\/strong>Balogun was red-carded in Team USA&#8217;s 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s next: <\/strong>The U.S. plays Belgium in the round of 16 clash on Monday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Go deeper:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/05\/folarin-balogun-cleared-usmnt-belgium-fifa-red-card\" target=\"_blank\">Belgium &#8220;astonished&#8221; by FIFA&#8217;s Balogun red card reversal<\/a><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino about U.S. striker Folarin Balogun&#8217;s suspension before the governing body lifted it, a U.S. official tells Axios. Why it matters: Direct presidential intervention in a FIFA disciplinary matter would be highly unusual, and the reversal allows Balogun to play in the knockout stage. The big picture: The president&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/WM_nVt2UGFxsmOCbbfvKkHH1omo=\/0x60:5485x3146\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/05\/1783284627082.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}