{"id":8145,"date":"2026-07-17T01:12:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8145"},"modified":"2026-07-17T01:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:12:02","slug":"how-us-soccer-is-spinning-folarin-balogun-red-card-fallout-after-trump-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8145","title":{"rendered":"How US Soccer is spinning Folarin Balogun red card fallout after Trump call"},"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:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2Fnewspress-collage-veqe4im9z-1784230548773-1.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261784217065\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. \u2014 After Folarin Balogun admitted in a televised interview this week that his teammates had \u201ca bit of nerves\u201d after his red-card suspension was suspended, causing the biggest controversy of the World Cup, U.S. Soccer CEO J.T. Batson avoided saying whether the White House\u2019s involvement in the situation was a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president is able to do what the president wants to do,\u201d Batson told a small group of reporters, including The Post, on Thursday. \u201cThe president is the president of the United States. Obviously we\u2019re incredibly grateful for all the support from all of our fans across the country, wherever they are, and we\u2019re excited about that. And we know that\u2019ll pay dividends going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Post\u2019s Mark Cannizzaro <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/05\/sports\/how-us-soccer-got-folarin-baloguns-suspension-overturned-including-trumps-phone-call\/\">reported exclusively<\/a> that Batson, along with federation COO Dan Helfrich \u2014 who was part of Thursday\u2019s roundtable \u2014 helped lead U.S. Soccer in fighting the Balogun ruling based on the incorrect application of VAR, threatening legal action.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>U.S. Soccer CEO J.T. Batson in June 2026 <span class=\"credit\">Anadolu via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>President Trump\u2019s involvement, which included a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/05\/sports\/trump-called-fifa-president-asking-to-review-folarin-baloguns-red-card-suspension\/\">call to FIFA president Gianni Infantino<\/a>, caused a perception that the U.S. had received a political favor. That created global outrage over the situation, and became a rallying cry that motivated Belgium.<\/p>\n<p>It also seemed to affect the USMNT, which played a nervous game in a 4-1 loss to Belgium in front of a record-setting television audience.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Folarin Balogun during the loss to Belgium <span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Manu Fernandez<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cMy initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team, but when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy,\u201d Balogun told \u201cCBS This Morning\u201d in his first interview following the World Cup. \u201cAnd I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves, because it\u2019s something that is so unique.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the closer we got to the game, I just tried to focus as best as I could, but it was difficult. A lot of outside noise, and that\u2019s hard to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Batson said the immense attention the situation created was ultimately a positive for the growth of the sport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the outpouring of support was incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd at many points along the way, my phone blew up when people felt like we got a bad foul called on us or they felt like there was an opportunity for something to improve. I think that\u2019s a sign of us growing as a soccer culture. People care.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>President Donald Trump called FIFA after the controversial red card. <span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that things cut through, the fact that people talked about it, it was on sports talk radio in ways that soccer never would have been before. To me, that\u2019s a sign of the growth of our sport. It\u2019s a sign of the success of this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\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>FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. \u2014 After Folarin Balogun admitted in a televised interview this week that his teammates had \u201ca bit of nerves\u201d after his red-card suspension was suspended, causing the biggest controversy of the World Cup, U.S. Soccer CEO J.T. Batson avoided saying whether the White House\u2019s involvement in the situation was a mistake. \u201cThe president&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/newspress-collage-veqe4im9z-1784230548773-1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1784217065&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8145","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=8145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}