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Donald Trump reportedly called FIFA president Gianni Infantino in order to get FIFA to review the red card that USA player Folarin Balogun recieved in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ordinarily, Balogun's red card would render him ineligible for Team USA's next game against Belgium in the round of 16. However, a special session of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee decided to suspend the red card, allowing Balogun to play against Belgium.
Belgium is big mad. The conventional wisdom in the immediate aftermath of the red card was that this was not a reviewable decision. This is a good reminder that nothing is ever final until it happens.
Have there been statements by the Belgian team that they don't care and they'll win anyway? Maybe it's just not being reported, but playing under protest because Balogun is on the pitch is big loser energy.
The result here might be irregular, but it isn't unfair because it shouldn't have a serious impact on the outcome of the game.
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I thought you couldn't make soccer more of a joke.
How could you say this? The tournament has like another dozen games left. And those games are way more likely to feature some dumb drama. I bet you'll retract this statement by the end.
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He who saves a nation violates no law
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This is pretty poor behaviour. I'm seeing videos of Mexico fans making massive noise, lighting fireworks outside the hotel the English team is playing in in a (failed) attempt to disrupt their sleep. That's obviously crass and bad behaviour. How is this any better, just because it's done behind closed doors?
The US was also using tricks with the Iranian team I recall, making them travel into and then quickly leave the country.
It's just a game, not a trade agreement or a war or anything worth cheating over. What is the point? Why not at least show a little magnanimity or sportsmanship?
The US never played Iran, this is just normal immigration stuff that got signal boosted because "fuck the US" (related: Canada actually did much worse stuff but didn't get nearly as much bad press).
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TBF that is exactly the argument people make about much more important topics like jawboning, corruption versus fraud, etc. If you do it the right way (and let's be honest, with the correct letter behind your name), you can get away with anything.
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Football is never "just a game".
It's our DNA.
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The Iran situation seemed kinda weird and possibly atleast partly down to Iranian officials in charge of stopping players defecting (Like the women's team did in Australia) not being given visas due to their political affiliation. Then Iran minimizing time in the USA to try and reduce risk of defection
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My take, in this case, is that just because FIFA is used to accepting their bribes in grocery bags full of euros hand-delivered to their hotel rooms by expensive prostitutes, does not mean they aren't capable of long term planning. The US is a great growth market for them- lots and lots of disposable income(in an extremely strong currency) with a population that loves sports, has ties all over the world, makes a great host, has advertisers who will pay dearly, etc. Mild corruption is Tuesday and they've been trying to get the USA into footballing for a long time. It should've been a yellow card anyways.
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Oh god, did Trump somehow manage to make the perpetually underdog USMNT the bad guy during their home World Cup?
We were always the bad guy, this has just given the hatred a locus.
Americans and their ability to front as the best and strongest country in the world whilst also being the worlds biggest victim is unmatched.
Trump is not a popular figure. Neither is FIFA. Seeing them shake hands over the US team is like getting a letter of recommendation from Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein on your ability to manage a summer camp for girls.
No one likes the Belgians. Seeing them lose to the Americans would be great. But that would be quite enough for most people. And you should be courteous enough to pack your bags and leave when you're done.
You should see "the media" in europe, a wretched hive of scum and villainy even more dishonest than CNN.
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Yes, many Americans have no idea how much people dislike the Belgians (and not just for the actions of Leopold II). Previously I was rooting for USA win here. After this, well, I'm still rooting for a USA win here, but it's now a little bitter.
I've never met anyone, including several Belgians, who have strong opinions about Belgium as a country, much less actively dislike it. I don't really believe there's a large contingent of Belgium-haters anywhere outside their former colonies.
Oh, I genuinely dislike Belgians. My least favourite Europeans by far. Again, no issue with the land or its art (many great artists have come from the land now known as Belgium), but rather once again, it's the people and their ancestors. And actually, this time I have an issue with the country itself (in a way that I absolutely don't with the UK or France or the US) and how it's built from wealth extracted through opression of other peoples in far flung corners of the world to an extreme degree even the other colonial powers were horrified at (say what you want about the Brits, at least their colonialism was probably the most "enlightened" version of it out there).
The Jutes didn't get their own soveriegn country. Neither did the Frisisans. It's a sad accident of history that Belgium even exists as a country today and didn't get absorbed as a part of France.
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The French have a category of jokes, mostly the same as "blonde jokes" in english, specifically for Belgians. They are usually depicted in French media as dumb yokels.
Sounds almost affectionate if anything. I've heard the Dutch do this aswell.
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It's generally seen as ill mannered and out of touch to go digging into the past for grievance with anything relating to politics. So I don't think Leopold has much to do with it. Football is its own history.
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Somewhat related, I’ve read a lot of hatred being hurled at Belgium in regards to soccer. Can you explain the anti-Belgian thing? They seem like a tiny country that nobody really cares about with a soccer team that is like second or third tier in Europe. I know they’re highly ranked but that’s it. Why do non-US soccer fans seem to hate them?
Say, how do you like the Belgians now?
Yeah, yeah…not great Bob.
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A mismatch between FIFA ranking and big tournament performance for a couple of years.
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It's hard to say. I can only speak for myself in that they are a bitch to lose against. They usually have very strong teams on paper, but they also never go the distance to actually win. For smaller countries to have their miracle runs ended by Belgium instead of the 'big teams' is very anti-climactic. For bigger teams to lose against Belgium is similarly disappointing. It feels like you've been robbed of all the romance and drama of seeing two big teams duking it out. Instead you get... Belgium.
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They had a golden generation about 5-10 years ago that made them an absolute top tier team for a bit. They're coming down from that level of play so there's still some resentment about that run.
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Shot in the dark but does it have to do with being the seat of the EU?
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He should be disqualified for not being American. Trump admin literally had their birth tourism case last week and he’s exactly what they and (me) are against. The only exposure he’s had of America is being born here for 2 months and leaving.
Edit: wanted to add I think it’s the right call reversing this red. All the post saying corruption or US bullying but honestly I think they just fixed a mistake. I don’t think he should be playing for US team because he’s not an American.
My goodness, what long labor. How's his mom doing?
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Sorry chuds. The constitution says America wins FIFA.
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The President of the United States getting a soccer decision overturned demonstrates that yes, you can effectively use a bazooka to kill a mosquito.
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I've been seeing talk about VAR having been improperly used in this case, and how that's the unspoken justification (because FIFA doesn't want to admit a mistake). Any truth to that?
It was a shitty, stupid call, but shitty stupid calls are a tradition within international soccer that is being threatened by the American Way.
It's one of the major cultural differences between American big-4 sports and international soccer, and has been for years, along with showing pain on the field*. American sports thrive on precision and accuracy, soccer on a vague sense of spirit. In the NFL and NBA the clock is precise to the millisecond, in soccer the game ends when the ref thinks we're at a pretty good spot to end it. In American sports out of bounds is fought down to the inch and moment the ball or the player is out of bounds play stops, in soccer out of bounds is just kinda casual.
Soccer is very like boxing, in that corrupt or fixed matches are part of the lore in a way that is inextricable from the history of the sport. Reading a big Muhammed Ali bio, basically every one of his championship fights had some accusations of corruption or fixing or tomato can or pepper-on-the-gloves antics by somebody. Maradona is one the inner circle best, and also illegally scored in the World Cup and everyone knows it and it's just a joke. Once you accept that it is part of the history, the thought of actually getting calls right would be change, and there's nothing old-head hardcore fans hate more than change.
*My solution to diving, which I find distasteful and unaesthetic: harshly penalize extravagantly showing pain on the field, regardless of whether there was a foul or not. Soccer players aren't inherently more effeminate than any other athletes, they're just trained and socialized to show pain, where other athletes are trained and socialized to shrug it off. The "don't be a bitch" rule will fix the problem.
Can we start by fixing basketball and QB play?
I'm not sure professional Basketball is ultimately salvageable as a sport. It would require major surgery, altering rules in ways that would make the modern sport illegible to the classic sport.
What do you see as wrong with QB play?
Diving for RTP calls mostly. Also Josh Allen is (to be technical) a little bitch.
Agreed that it's an issue. My bete noire is the Mahomes style fake going out of bounds so they defender has to stop his momentum to avoid a RTP, then sneak back in for more yards. Or the late slide to pick up an extra yard. It'll need to be regulated at some point.
I just don't think it's nearly as common or nearly as distasteful as the display you see in soccer, or in the NBA at this point.
I mean it's less common but it doesn't get enough censure because people are used to football players toughing things out.
Josh Allen being a human freight train when he wants to be and a granny with a broken hip when he wants to be is dumber than Neymar rolling around.
I think it gets less censure because of the helmets. I just don't see the same degree of facial acting during NFL games, so it's less distasteful.
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This is mostly because there's too much cultural inertia to do what has to be done: eliminate the three point shot.
Then floor spacing dies, players get taller and more immobile again and the product quickly finds a new metagame that's equally horrible
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I like the three point game. My problem is with the meta-game of load-management and cap-acrobatics and tanking.
The problems I see are that a) the game is easier in every aspect and phase the taller you are, b) there aren't enough tall people with that talent level in the world to staff 30 competitive teams, c) there are 30 NBA teams, d) who play 82 games a year, which e) don't really matter to the final season outcome that everyone cares about.
Solve those five and the three point game will be much less of a problem.
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Why? So it can go back to being a game of giants with very little skill?
At what point in the NBA’s history do you believe this was an accurate description of the game?
Probably back when not enough players could consistently make three pointers.
I'm not an NBA history buff, but that seems to be the desired direction for their change.
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As I understand it there really was some kind of irregularity with how VAR was used, I believe that they used slo-mo or still frames in a context where it isn’t allowed (because all contact looks worse slowed down) or something similar to that, but they’re not hiding that, it’s in the official FIFA statement. It also was an extremely harsh call, and Messi had done the exact same thing (worse, honestly) in a previous game and wasn’t even given a yellow. They all-but-never overturn decisions within a tournament though, so imho, that’s all probably the fig leaf and Trump contacting Infantino is the real reason. I think the only other time this has happened was way back in the 60s? They did wipe away a multi-game suspension for violent conduct for Ronaldo to let him play in this very tournament, but FWIW that red card happened before the tournament so it isn’t quite as egregious/comical.
I was texting with a friend about the overturned suspension earlier today, and literally during the act of sending him a meme about “Trump called up FIFA to make this happen lol” it was confirmed that, in fact, that was exactly what happened. What a time to be alive.
Anyway, culture-war-wise I haven’t seen any truly negative opinions about the decision from Americans, certainly not from American soccer fans. Everyone I’ve seen or talked to has been amused and/or happy. It is admittedly kinda dirty but, well, it’s FIFA. Even the liberal NYT commenters on an article I read seem to at most be saying “I wish it hadn’t happened like this but I’ll take it.” Hell, even my mom (who utterly despises Trump and doesn’t care that much about sports) isn’t too broken up about it. That red card was total BS anyway, so this is how it always should’ve been.
After the red card and before this happened, the general sentiment from my mostly liberal social circles was "What's the point of having a corrupt government if they won't step in at times like this?"
Now everyone is pretty happy.
It's interesting that Trump is clearly pro-America-getting-into-soccer- and as an MLS fan(and rooting for a team that has three players for the national team), I have to sympathize- even though being into soccer is my least red tribe trait(no, speaking French doesn't count, it's Cajun French and not metropolitan), Trump liking it makes up for retarded Iran adventurism in my book.
I mean he's a huge sports fan of all kinds.
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I think Trump would have the same reaction if it was darts. It isn’t soccer itself but America winning.
He just praised Harry Kane, too, though. I think he genuinely likes soccer, or at least feels some fondness for the game. He played soccer in his school days.
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Trump loves the USA winning, but he probably loves even more that world cup tourists love America. They love our restaurants, our dance halls, our wings and ranch dressing, bucees and the sheer scale. There are regular human interest stories on cable news about fans from abroad falling in love with America(and drinking all the beer in Boston) in addition to the usual aides printing out tweets for him to peruse.
Out of all of the "Euros loving America" style slop content, the ranch dressing thing strikes me as particularly bizarre. You can easily get ranch dressing here, including multiple locally produced varieties. It's a very common choice for chicken wings, which are also available in basically almost every pub that also serves food here. Perhaps it's different in some other countries?
Buffalo wings outside of the USA very rarely live up to the ones inside the USA. I'm not a particular fan of American food but that's one spot where I'll say the Americans way outdo everybody else
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