Elijah Nweke

🚨🚨🚨🚨🗣️Donald Trump has confirmed that he asked Gianni Infantino to review Folarin Balogun's red card:

"I didn't even know what a red card meant. You've got to be kidding me!" Trump blasts Brazilian referee Raphael Claus over Folarin Balogun's dismissal. 🇺🇸⚽️

"There was absolutely no foul in that incident. It was simply a natural collision between two outstanding athletes who came together. It's not as if one player punched the other in the face and deserved to be sent off! Everyone wants to watch a match featuring the best players. How would you feel if we removed Messi, Ronaldo, or Harry Kane just because of a minor coming together?"

"If FIFA had prevented one of our star players—perhaps the best player on the team—from playing in the next match, it would have left a huge stain on this wonderful tournament. Our best players should be on the pitch, and Belgium has a great team, by the way. We want to play at full strength, and so do they. Then, whether we win or lose, the result will be fair."

"So I think the committee made a brilliant and absolutely correct decision by overturning the suspension. The referee's decision to send him off was terrible and shocking! What's strange is that nobody is talking about how bad that decision was. Instead, they're focusing on the red card as if it were deserved. In fact, I didn't even know what a red card meant before. When I learned that it also keeps a player out of the next match, I said, 'You've got to be kidding me! The referee just raises his hand like this and removes the team's best player, ruining the next game?!' That's far too much power and terrible authority. And when I looked into this referee's track record, I found it wasn't good at all!"

Sepp Blatter, the former FIFA president, didn't hold back. On Monday, July 6, 2026, he wrote on X a sentence that summed up the entire controversy:

"Red cards are not overturned because of political phone calls. They are overturned through rules, evidence, and independent bodies."

What sparked his outrage? According to AFP and The New York Times, Donald Trump personally called Gianni Infantino to ask him to review the red card shown to United States striker Folarin Balogun, who had been sent off for stepping on the ankle of Tarik Muharemović during the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

FIFA subsequently lifted the suspension, allowing Balogun to play in the Round of 16 against Belgium in Seattle—something that had not happened since the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile.

The Belgian Football Association said it was "astonished," while the European League described the decision as "unprecedented, incomprehensible, and unjustifiable."

Blatter went even further, calling Infantino "Trump's lackey" and posing the question now echoing throughout the football world:

"Where are you headed, FIFA?"

🆕🚨Jordan Henderson will MISS the rest of the World Cup. He will need surgery. 🤕

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🚨🇫🇷Manchester United have long identified Aurélien Tchouaméni as a dream midfield target.

The club is expected to gain clarity on the 26-year-old's future at Real Madrid after the FIFA World Cup, with José Mourinho set to make a final decision.

United are reportedly prepared to offer a significant transfer fee and a lucrative salary package to bring Tchouaméni to Old Trafford.

🚨🚨🆕Chelsea have submitted a second bid for Pep Chavarría, worth around €18 million including add-ons.💰💙

🆕〽️Paris Saint-Germain and Maghnes Akliouche have agreed on a five-year contract. Talks between PSG and Monaco have just begun. (via RMC Sport)

🇩🇪🗣️ Jürgen Klopp, BLASTS Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump:

"These two people, who KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FOOTBALL, shouldn't be interfering in this.

It was a red card. THERE'S NOTHING TO DEBATE. I feel sorry for Balogun because it wasn't intentional. But that's what the rules say.
If the White House really got involved, then it's ABSURD. Football belongs to us, NOT TO THEM."

🚨❌Javier Aguirre has stepped down as Mexico's head coach. 🇲🇽👋

🚨💣💣UEFA has criticized FIFA for canceling the one-match suspension that Folarin Balogun received after his red card. 🇺🇸😱👇

"The decision made yesterday to suspend the automatic one-match ban resulting from the red card shown to Folarin Balogun, replacing it with a one-year suspended sanction, has crossed a red line.

Football, like any other sport, is built on rules that are the foundation of fair, honest, and transparent competition.

While some rules may occasionally be open to interpretation, this is not one of those cases.

When the rules no longer provide the certainty that those responsible for enforcing them are supposed to guarantee, the integrity of the game is put at risk, and the credibility of the tournament is damaged.

Furthermore, this decision sets a precedent for the current competition, meaning any similar cases in the future would have to be treated the same way—at the expense of the competition's integrity.

Football is the world's most popular sport because it is a beautiful game and because it inspires trust by being played everywhere under the same rules.

This tournament is not an isolated event, and when it is the FIFA World Cup, its decisions can have positive or negative consequences for football as a whole.

We express our astonishment and disbelief at this unprecedented and incomprehensible decision."

🚨🗣 Zlatan Ibrahimović on Erling Haaland: "I was a more complete player than him. If Haaland gets two chances, he'll score two goals.

If I got two chances, I'd score three.

Haaland still has to do a lot more to reach the kind of exception I was”. 😅