Freaking FIFA

Just a little FIFA fuckery

Have you been enjoying the World Cup? If so, that's too bad because Donald Trump found a way to fuck that up too. Trump does not care about rules or fairness. If he’ll steal an election, he'll steal the World Cup.

Folarin Balogun, the top scorer of the US team, was given a straight red card during the round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday for a foul on defender Tarik Muharemovic. Under FIFA’s own rules, Balogun was set to be banned for one match and would not be available to face Belgium in tonight’s game.

The stakes are high as the tournament will be over for whoever loses in tonight's game. Belgium won their last match 5-2, which was in March.

Hours after last Wednesday's game, Trump called Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, and asked him to review the suspension. On Sunday, yesterday, FIFA reversed the suspension, announcing that Balogun would be eligible to play on Monday against Belgium. Donald Trump praised the decision on social media and talked about it to the media today. If the US team wins, you can be sure that Donald Trump will take credit for it.

The US team should remember that Trump cursed the New York Knicks, and he can curse them too.

Remember, to curry favor with Trump, Infantino created and presented him with the FIFA Peace Prize after he was rejected by the Nobel Prize committee. Corruption is sure to ruin these games. Trump does not care that this is not a real prize any more than he cares if Team USA wins the World Cup fairly.

FIFA has rules against appeals, but despite that, senior Trump administration officials, including Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, and Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House task force on the World Cup (and Rudy Giuliani's kid), engaged lawyers to help the U.S. Soccer Federation try to appeal Balogun’s red card before Trump made his little phone call.

US Soccer officials argued the red card was improperly given to Balogun because game officials should not have used slow-motion video replay in determining the penalty. Use of video replays is common practice, and players have frequently been ejected after reviews.

Scott Goodwin, a hedge fund manager and major donor to U.S. Soccer, brought to the attention of Trump officials public accusations that Raphael Claus, the referee in the US/Bosnia match, was involved in match fixing in Brazil by giving out irregular red cards. Brazilian authorities and FIFA have found no evidence of wrongdoing by Claus, but according to sources familiar with the phone call, Trump brought up those allegations in his call with Infantino. Claus did not initially call a foul on Balogun but was asked to review his decision by other officials tasked with monitoring replays.

On Sunday, Infantino and Trump spoke again right after Balogun was reinstated, and Trump told Infantino that it was the right decision…and patted him on the head like a good dog.

This is the first time since 1962 that FIFA has allowed a player to appear in a game when they would have been suspended after being sent off in the World Cup.

UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, has said that FIFA’s decision to suspend Balogun’s one-match ban is “incomprehensible” and “crossed a red line.”

The decision was criticized by the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA), which called it a “direct contradiction” of the competition regulations. Unsurprisingly, the appeal was quickly rejected by FIFA.

UEFA issued a statement today which said, “Football, like any other sport, relies on rules, which are the basis for fair, honest and transparent competition,” and “It is a principle embedded in regulations, which cannot be made subject to exceptions, let alone in the middle of a tournament where several other players have been in the same situation and regularly served their suspension.”

UEFA also said, “When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake, and the credibility of a competition is undermined. We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”

The suspension of Balogun’s ban was also criticized by former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, who focused on the meddling by Trump and Infantino, who said, “This is our game, not theirs. These two people (Trump and Infantino), who both have no idea about football, should have nothing to do with that. That was a red card. There’s no two ways about it.”

Ted Lasso had no comment.

I do not know if Balogun deserved the red card or not. Neither does Trump, who didn't even know what a red card was until yesterday. But rules that apply to every team in this tournament should also apply to the US team. The United States should not be given special treatment because Donald Trump made a phone call.

Now, get ready for some irony.

Folarin Balogun is a birthright citizen. He was born in New York City while his Nigerian parents were visiting, while living in London. He grew up in the United Kingdom and is eligible to play for Nigeria, England, and the United States. If the Supreme Court had ruled in Donald Trump's favor last week on birthright citizenship, Balogun’s citizenship would have been revoked by Donald Trump.

I will post an update after tonight's game.

By the way, go England!

Update: Belgium beat USA 4-1.

Creative note: Before I completed this cartoon, I saw others on it by my colleagues, and several more after I had finished. That makes me very happy that I chose the subject because it's the big news of the day.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

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