<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump<\/span> regularly resorts to bluster and threats to get his way \u2014 from efforts to overturn election results to campaigning for international prizes \u2014 often with little success. But in FIFA, he has finally found a pliant partner to massage his ego and do his bidding.<\/p>\n In a highly unusual move this weekend, the international soccer federation reversed a suspension of a top U.S. player after a personal intervention by Trump, undermining the integrity of the game, according to experts.<\/p>\n Trump personally called<\/a> FIFA President Gianni Infantino, following a win by the U.S. men\u2019s soccer team in the FIFA World Cup last week, and asked him to review the one-game suspension of striker Folarin Balogun, the team\u2019s top goal scorer. On Sunday, FIFA reversed course, announcing Balogun would be eligible to play in the upcoming U.S. match against Belgium. It was the first time that FIFA has nullified a suspension for a red card received during the World Cup in 64 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!\u201d Trump wrote<\/a> on Truth Social on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Union of European Football Associations expressed \u201cdisbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision\u201d that it said undermined not just the tournament but soccer itself.<\/p>\n \u201cFootball, like any other sports, relies on rules, which are the basis for fair, honest and transparent competition,\u201d UEFA said in a statement. \u201cWhen the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Monday, Trump described FIFA referee Raphael Claus, who gave Balogun the red card after a review suggested by the video assistant referee, as \u201cvery suspect<\/a>\u201d \u2014 an apparent reference to past accusations of match fixing.<\/p>\n Asked if his intervention with Infantino created a troubling precedent which would lead other world leaders to attempt to exert influence over soccer, Trump dismissed concerns. \u201cI had nothing to do with the decision,\u201d he said<\/a> on Monday. \u201cWhat I did have to do is, I said, I think this should be reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n The red card reversal is not FIFA\u2019s first concession to Trump. After years of lobbying and begging by Trump failed to win him a Nobel Peace Prize, FIFA created its own peace prize last year and presented it<\/a> to Trump.<\/p>\n FIFA signed a partnership agreement with Trump\u2019s so-called Board of Peace to \u201cfoster investment into football for the purpose of helping the recovery process in post conflict areas,\u201d Infantino announced<\/a> earlier this year. Trump controls the Board of Peace\u2019s\u00a0finances<\/a>\u00a0as its chair, creating what looks to be a massive slush fund<\/a>. For the past year, FIFA has also leased office space<\/a> at Trump Tower in New York City.<\/p>\n For more than six months, FIFA has ducked questions from The Intercept about the Peace Prize and the organization\u2019s fealty to Trump. FIFA spokesperson Jhamie Chin did not reply to repeated questions about the federation\u2019s recent capitulation over Balogun\u2019s suspension.<\/p>\n Trump undercutting the credibility of the single largest and most-watched sporting event in the world mirrors his long-running efforts to weaken the electoral process in the United States and undermine the integrity of elections. Trump is currently attempting to force Congress to pass legislation \u2014 the SAVE America Act \u2014 which threatens to increase the difficulty or block the ability to vote for millions of eligible American citizens, justifying the legislation with false claims of voter fraud. According to research by the Brennan Center for Justice<\/a>, more than 21 million citizens do not have ready access to a birth certificate, a passport, or naturalization papers that would be needed to comply with a so-called \u201cshow your papers\u201d provision.<\/p>\n For years, Trump has regularly peddled fictions about \u201crigged\u201d elections, including his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden. After the 2020 election,\u00a0the results were certified, and 61 of 62 lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0challenging the results of the election failed. Trump refused, however, to accept the facts and continues to peddle the lie that he won the 2020 race. Since then, Trump has regularly claimed, without offering evidence, that Democratic electoral victories are the result of fraud. Most recently, he claimed, without any proof, that the Los Angeles mayoral race<\/a> was \u201crigged\u201d against former reality star Spencer Pratt.<\/p>\n Trump said on Monday that he would view a victory by Belgium in the same light. \u201cIf they beat us, I say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020,\u201d he announced.<\/p>\n In awarding him its inaugural peace prize, FIFA said<\/a> that\u00a0Trump\u00a0was \u201crecognised for his tireless efforts to promote peace.\u201d In the five-plus years Trump has been in the White House, alone, the U.S. has been\u00a0embroiled in more than 20<\/a>\u00a0military interventions, armed conflicts, and wars, according to an analysis by The Intercept.<\/p>\n Chin deflected when asked in February how FIFA could ignore Trump\u2019s constant war-making. The spokesperson failed to respond to repeated follow-up questions on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n #FIFA #Trump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Donald Trump regular… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[246],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}