United States President, Donald Trump, has said he would consider a defeat to Belgium in the World Cup Round of 16 “rigged,” comparing it to his claims about the 2020 US presidential election.
Trump made the remark while addressing the controversy trailing the US team’s build-up to Monday’s clash in Seattle, at an Oval Office event in Washington to mark the launch of “Trump Accounts,” an investment scheme for children.
He said, “This game would have a big mark on it. If we lost, if we won, no matter what happened, you have to let them use their best players. And the game tonight’s gonna be amazing, and we’re gonna have a full team, and Belgium’s gonna have a full team.
“And you know what? If they beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we’ll say it was, I say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020, but I won’t get into that.”
Trump also confirmed he had called FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, to ask for a review of a red card decision against US forward, Folarin Balogun, insisting he had not directed the outcome.
“I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” he said, adding that he “didn’t know what the hell a red card was” before the incident.
Balogun, regarded as one of the US team’s key players, was sent off during the Americans’ Round of 32 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California, last Wednesday.
Under FIFA rules, the red card carried an automatic one-match suspension without appeal, which would have ruled him out of Monday’s last-16 tie against Belgium in Seattle.
The New York Times had reported, citing three unnamed sources, that Trump called Infantino last Wednesday to ask him to review the decision.
FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee subsequently suspended the ban for a one-year probationary period, citing Article 27 of its disciplinary code, which permits a judicial body to fully or partially suspend a disciplinary measure.
The reversal — the first of its kind for a red-card suspension in more than 60 years of World Cup history, according to reports — drew sharp criticism from European football’s governing body, UEFA, which said FIFA had “crossed a red line” and described the decision as “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”
