They Call It the Beautiful Game. At This World Cup, It Looked a Lot Like Politics.
Isla Montclair
A phone call from a president overturned a red card. Iran trained in Mexico because it was not welcome in America. FIFA handed out its first-ever Peace Prize to the host nation’s leader. This is a story about what sport actually is when the world is watching.
The Phone Call That Changed a World Cup Match
Let us start with the facts because the facts are already extraordinary enough on their own.
On July 1, 2026, US striker Folarin Balogun received a red card in the round of 32 against Bosnia and Herzegovina for stepping on the ankle of an opposing player. A red card triggers an automatic one-game suspension. FIFA announced Sunday that the suspension had been lifted, triggering praise from Trump and outrage from Belgium’s team.
What happened between the red card and the reversal is the whole story. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Andrew Giuliani, who were both at the match, called Trump. Trump then called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to ask for a review of the red card. FIFA President Gianni Infantino and US President Donald Trump had already developed a notably close relationship, with Infantino awarding Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in 2025.
Trump was quite open about what he did. “Yes, I asked for a review by FIFA,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. He called the Brazilian referee “a little bit suspect.” He described Infantino as “very respected.” He posted on Truth Social: “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”
It was the first instance since 1962 that a red card during the tournament did not result in a match suspension for a player.
The US lost to Belgium 4-1 anyway, and was eliminated from the tournament.
What Everyone Else Said
UEFA released a statement saying the decision had “crossed a red line” and was “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”
Belgium’s coach Rudi Garcia said FIFA’s April Fools’ Day joke had come three months late. Norway’s coach said it was a “bad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup.” England’s Thomas Tuchel asked the question that everyone was actually thinking: “Who overturns this decision then, and when? And on what grounds? How far does this go now?”
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, the man who ran the organisation from 1998 to 2015 before being forced out in a corruption scandal, wrote: “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies.”
In 2022, FIFA suspended Kenya and Zimbabwe for government interference in the activities of both countries’ football associations. The same organisation just let a sitting president overturn a red card with a personal phone call to its president. Those two things happened.
Belgium’s football association tried to appeal the decision. FIFA on Monday afternoon said that the Royal Belgian Football Association’s challenge was rendered inadmissible on the grounds that the RBFA is not a party to the proceedings and, as such, has no standing to appeal the decision. The association said FIFA itself created an appeal and then immediately ensured it would be declared inadmissible. The judge appointed to Belgium’s appeal was Neil Eggleston, from the United States.
Iran’s Team Trained in Mexico. Their Fans Were Not Allowed to Buy Tickets.
While the red card saga played out in the knockout stages, the group stage had already served up its own version of the same story.
Iran’s soccer federation accused the United States of “vindictive behavior” after saying that visas were refused for “key managerial and administrative members” of its World Cup team. The Iran Football Federation’s secretary-general and its vice president were among 14 backroom staff and officials without US visas before games in Los Angeles and Seattle.
Iran’s team had originally planned to base themselves in Tucson, Arizona. At FIFA’s suggestion, they agreed to move their training site to the Mexican border city of Tijuana. The team will fly into Los Angeles on match day and depart the day after. So Iran played three group stage matches on the US west coast while training in a different country.
Iran’s allotment of tickets for supporters was to be 8% of stadium capacity. A source with knowledge of FIFA’s approach told ESPN that because of the economic sanctions applied by the US against Iran, the US Office of Foreign Asset Control prevented US-based entities such as the FIFA26 organizers from processing transactions involving residents of Iran. This includes the sale of Iran’s allotment of tickets to the team’s fans.
Iranian forward Mehdi Taremi summed up how it felt to be in the middle of this. “Unfortunately, I’m not feeling it right now. There’s a lot of tension right now in this World Cup.”
A Somali referee, Omar Artan, who was set to officiate World Cup games, was also denied entry to the United States.
The Pattern That Everyone Can See
Trump’s political career shows he hardly sees rules as an impediment. It’s not important how you win. It’s winning that counts.
But this is not really a story about Trump specifically. This is a story about what FIFA is. The organisation that gave Trump its inaugural Peace Prize. The organisation that in Qatar banned rainbow armbands to respect the host’s cultural values, then permitted rainbow flags in Seattle despite two Muslim nations asking for the same respect. The organisation that suspended Kenya and Zimbabwe for government interference, then let a phone call from the US president overturn a match ruling.
The director and co-founder of human rights group FairSquare, Nicholas McGeehan, told Reuters that FIFA’s governance structure is “rotten” and the scandal could prevent Infantino from serving another term as FIFA president.
The beautiful game has always been political. The difference now is that nobody is even pretending otherwise.
Sources:
· Why FIFA’s Balogun red card suspension after Trump call is so controversial, Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/7/6/why-fifas-balogun-red-card-suspension-after-trump-call-is-so-controversial
· Analysis: Trump’s red card call stirs political storm around World Cup, CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/06/politics/trump-world-cup-balogun-red-card-infantino-analysis
· Trump’s FIFA Intervention Draws Global Backlash, Time: https://time.com/article/2026/07/06/trump-inserts-himself-in-world-cup-call-with-global-blowback/
· Trump’s request for a review of Balogun’s red card tests FIFA’s political neutrality, Fortune: https://fortune.com/2026/07/07/trump-fifa-folarin-balogun-world-cup-red-card-ban-belgium-uefa-political-neutrality-advertisers/
· US loses to Belgium 4-1; Balogun plays after Trump calls FIFA, CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/05/trump-fifa-balogun-world-cup-red-card-suspension.html
· AP report: FIFA lifts Balogun’s red card suspension after Trump calls Infantino, PBS News: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/ap-report-fifa-lifts-u-s-player-baloguns-red-card-suspension-at-world-cup-after-trump-calls-infantino
· Iran players: US visa policies creating World Cup tension, ESPN: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49017941/iran-players-say-us-visa-policies-create-world-cup-tension
· Which World Cup teams, players and officials were denied US visas, Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/11/which-world-cup-teams-players-and-officials-were-denied-us-visas-entry
