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When it comes to Donald Trump and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Boomer Esiason wishes the president of the United States would just stick to politics. Esiason might agree with Trump on a lot, but he didn’t agree with the president’s intervention regarding Folarin Balogun’s red card.
Balogun was controversially shown a red card last Wednesday during the United States men’s national team’s 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina, resulting in an automatic one-game suspension. The suspension was initially upheld by FIFA, making Balogun ineligible for the USMNT’s round-of-16 matchup with Belgium. But nearly 24 hours before kickoff, FIFA surprisingly lifted the U.S. star’s red card suspension, allowing him to play against Belgium on Monday night.
Hours before the match, Trump confirmed he had called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to request that the red card against Balogun be reviewed. Trump has since been widely criticized for placing that call, with even usual supporters like Boomer Esiason condemning the president’s decision to intervene with the World Cup.
“This is the thing I don’t like,” Esiason said of Trump on his WFAN morning radio show. “Because this is the corruption, this is the stuff that leads to people not trusting anybody. I hate the politics side of all of this, but we all know politics are involved in everything. And I do hate the fact that the president ended up calling in. I don’t want to say a favor, but highlighting the fact that we feel our guy was mistreated when Lionel Messi was not treated the same way… or Cristiano Ronaldo was supposed to be suspended, but all of a sudden, his suspension went away.”
Many neutral soccer analysts believed the red card should have been overturned, but nearly everyone agrees FIFA should have reached that conclusion on its own. Once the governing body decided to uphold the red card, a phone call from Trump should have borne no influence over the decision. It’s impossible to know whether Trump successfully intervened, but the timing of his phone call, paired with the timing of FIFA’s reversal, gives people reason to speculate.
“It’s country pride, it’s international pride, it’s FIFA that is considered about as corrupt as any group of people that you can ever expect to be corrupt in this arena of international sport,” Esiason continued. “I hate the fact that the president got himself involved in this.”
Trump’s potential involvement might seem like a moot point now, considering the USMNT fell flat against Belgium, even with Balogun in the lineup. But with FIFA’s controversial history of corruption and bribery, the last-minute decision to reverse a red card following a phone call from Trump will continue to follow the governing body throughout this World Cup.
The post Boomer Esiason ‘hates’ Donald Trump’s FIFA intervention appeared first on Awful Announcing.
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