US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he has contacted FIFA President Gianni Infantino regarding the red card received by US striker Folarin Balogun, who was punished for a flagrant foul in the 2026 World Cup 1/16 final match against Bosnia and Herzegovina (2:0). The head of the White House noted that he asked to reconsider the decision on disqualification and tried to justify his actions by allegedly not noticing a violation on the part of the American football player, believing that the player should not be punished so severely. " And, you know, I'm good at these things. I didn't think there was a foul there. I thought it was two great athletes who bumped into each other and got confused. This wasn't a case of someone punching someone in the face or anything like that. It would be a completely different matter. I think it would be terrible if one of the leading players, and perhaps the best or one of the best players on the team, was not allowed to play. I think it would leave a big stain. This is exactly the feeling I expressed. I didn't tell Infantino what to do. I can't tell him what to do. And I don't believe that he was the one who made this decision.. I think it was a committee decision.. And they made the right decision. Because it wasn't against the rules. And you want to see a match with the best players. You don't want it to be different. How would you feel if we removed Messi After all, he just ran into someone. Or we would remove Ronaldo: “Ronaldo, you collided with someone, so we remove you from the game.”. He's a great player. Or Harry Kane: " You can't do that. If he were to be removed from the game I think it would really tarnish this incredible championship. We must have our best players and by the way Belgium have a great team. We must have our best and they must have their best. And if we win or lose, it will be a fair result. Otherwise, imagine: we would have lost him and then lost the match. It would be terrible. So I think they made a really brilliant decision. But the referee's decision was terrible. And no one talks about it. Everyone talks about the red card like it's normal. But no one talks about the referee's decision to show a red card. I didn't even know what the hell a red card was. When they explained it to me, I said they were joking. This guy just shows the card and your best player won't play next week or next match. I said, " It's horrible. But then I looked at his past, and it wasn’t that good,” Fox News quoted Trump as saying.. We remind you that after the removal, Balogun was supposed to miss the 1/8 finals of the 2026 World Cup against Belgium, which will be held on July 7, but it soon became known that FIFA suspended the disqualification of the US striker. The Mexican national team remains without a head coach after being eliminated from the World Cup. News on Telegram and WhatsApp. Subscribe to our channels https://t. me/korrespondentnet and WhatsApp.