We believed that VAR was going to put an end to the classic favoritism of the World Cup host. Then the White House made a call

“When the certainty of the rules is no longer guaranteed, the integrity of the game is called into question”

These are the words with which UEFA, in charge of overseeing the competitions of the European confederation, has responded to FIFA’s decision to withdraw a red card from Folarin Balogun, star forward of the United States team that faces Belgium in the round of 16.

The statement is just the latest response that FIFA has received regarding this controversial decision that comes, according to The New York Timesthat Donald Trump, president of the United States, called Gianni Infantino by phone to pressure him and demand that he remove the automatic match penalty that is applied when a player receives a red card.

FIFA’s decision is the latest maneuver to favor the host team in a World Cup and adds to the long list of favors for the locals that have traditionally marked the World Cup. Everything indicated that with VAR, the video refereeing tool, this was going to end or, at least, it was going to be very complicated to give small pushes to the local teams.

But FIFA is always ready to surprise you.

The regulation mess

Forlain Balogun, a United States forward who has three goals in the 2026 World Cup, plays an aerial ball. It is the 64th minute of the round of 32 match of the 2026 World Cup and the person who disputes the ball is Tarik Muharemovic. The game is about to experience a turning point.

The score reads 1-0, the United States has gone ahead with a goal from Balogun himself who is having a great championship but is about to lose its star for the remainder of the match and the round of 16 against Belgium. Or so we believed.

In the dispute, the American player hits the Bosnian defender from behind. An obvious foul that results in a red card. As he falls, Balogun accidentally lands with his studs on Muharemovic’s calf, drags his foot and bends the defender’s ankle. The VAR calls the referee to observe the play carefully. Although fortuitous, the force applied by the American player is considered excessive and he ends up expelled.

The match ends 2-0 and, of course, the worst thing for the United States is the impossibility of having their star striker in the tie against Belgium, the European team (hence the statement from UEFA, which is also in an open war against FIFA) against which they will play for a place in the quarterfinals. The winner will play against the winner of tonight’s Spain-Portugal.

A more common setback in short knockout tournaments, the same setback as if, for example, a player accumulates two yellow cards in different phases during the championship.

However, FIFA surprised yesterday with a statement: Forlain Balogun’s sanction was suspended. The alleged reason is that the suspension of a match was at the mercy of the player’s behavior in the next year. If he reoffends in a violent situation again, the rule will be applied to him.

To do this, FIFA has based itself on article 27 of its disciplinary regulations, which states that punishments can be suspended for a certain period of time subject to the player’s attitude. A decision that as they remember from the Belgian team (clearly affected by the player’s non-suspension), collides directly with article 66.4 of the same regulations in which it is specified that a player who receives a red card will not be able to play the next match.

In Sports CarouselIturralde González, former referee and referee commentator on the program, explains that the article that FIFA clings to is designed for disturbances on soccer fields and attitudes that go beyond the merely sporting. He explains that, in fact, FIFA does not withdraw the red card and only suspends the impossibility of playing the next match, a fact that has not been seen since 1962 when Garrincha was sent off in a tough semi-final against Chile but was cleared to play in the final against Czechoslovakia.

The call that went over the VAR

We could think that FIFA’s decision was serious and fell within one of the many tricks that they have been using for years to favor local teams. However, a post by Donald Trump in X and the explicit support of the White House in which he thanked FIFA directly, he made the hare jump.

The New York Times has been the first medium to publish what could be suspected once the thanks of the president of the United States was made public: The White House called Gianni Infantino directlypresident of FIFA, to ask that Forlain Balogun play against Belgium.

In The Wall Street Journal They narrate that Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, and Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the working group that the White House has active for the organization of the 2026 World Cup, went to work on the same night of the United States – Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From that moment on, they count on WSJa machinery made up of specialist lawyers related to Donald Trump began to move to try to stop the sanction. On the table was the possibility of challenging the red card and trying to prevent slow motion from being used in this type of actions in which video refereeing is involved (which many understand to magnify the damage caused by a kick or a stomp). The team, they explain in the media, was informed from the first moment but the United States National Team denied any possibility of revoking the sanction.

While all this was happening, always according to internal sources of The Wall Street JournalDonald Trump directly picked up the phone to speak with Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA who has always been very close to the American president. At that time, Infantino responded to the US president that he could not assure him anything but confirmed that the suspension had been revoked a few days later.

FIFA’s decision is a clear favorable treatment for the United States, the most powerful organizer of the Soccer World Cup, and has many aspects behind it. From a sporting point of view, it shows that even with the use of VAR it is possible to make decisions to favor local teams.

And it is that he video arbitration seemed to dispel a large part of the doubts that point to direct favorable treatment for the organizing teams. For decades we have witnessed more or less obvious refereeing favors in which local teams have been helped to overcome rounds or even win the tournament. Here’s a quick list:

• Italy World Cup 1934: Organized by fascist Italy, the local team won the tournament. In the quarterfinals, Spain tied with Italy but the toughness of the latter is such that in the tiebreaker match seven of the 11 Spanish starters cannot play, including goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora who was considered the biggest star in the world and ends the first match with two broken ribs.
• England World Cup 1966: Hosted in England, the home team defeats West Germany in the final by adding a ghost goal that was proven to have not crossed the goal line.
• Argentina World Cup 1978: organized by Argentina de Videlathe local team took the World Cup 3-1 against the Netherlands. In the last match of the second phase, Argentina needed to beat Peru by four goals but ended up winning 6-0. They say that after Videla himself passed through the Peruvian locker room.
• World Cup Korea and Japan 2002: organized by the two Asian countries, South Korea reaches the semifinal of the World Cup (historic for this team’s category) after eliminating Italy (with golden goal) and Spain (on penalties) in the round of 16 and quarterfinals in two games marked by refereeing controversies.

These are just some of the most striking cases and, without a doubt, FIFA’s move with the American striker falls squarely into this type of common list.

As with the predecessors in office, FIFA’s movement cannot be understood without direct intervention from its president. Infantino has always been very close to Donald Trump, whom he even gave him an invented prize ad hoc to alleviate the failure of the American president in the Nobel Peace Prize election.

But the favors to the United States have been evident from FIFA for much longer. And as they explain in the podcast Black Braceletthe awarding of the 2026 World Cup along with Mexico and Canada coincides with the disappearance of Gianni Infantino from the investigations by the FIFA Gate by the American Justice.

In response to the decision to hand over the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, the United States began investigating whether FIFA members had received bribes to hand over the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the next edition to the Arab country. The direct consequence is that the then president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, He made his position available to the organization and was subsequently suspended and it was the precedent for Gianni Infantino to reach the throne of world football.

Photo | The White House

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