Just when it seemed that Gianni Infantino’s most demeaning act of self-flagellation before the altar of Donald Trump was to hand the man a Peace Prize, we now discover that a quiet word from the White House preceded a decision to let the USA’s main goal threat off a ban and free to face Belgium in the last 16.
Everyone will try to deny executive influence of course, but the announcement that Folarin Balogun‘s suspension for his red card against Bosnia is to be rescinded stinks this tournament out. No such treatment for the Qataris or the South Africans who had players dismissed earlier in the piece.
Balogun’s restoration to the USA squad reminds us there’s a pecking order. As did the extremely convenient reducing of Cristiano Ronaldo’s suspension for a red card in a World Cup qualifier for swinging an elbow at a Republic of Ireland player, freeing him to be ready for the group stage. ‘Say no more. Consider it done.’ This is how power works.
We’ve spent the weekend out here being reminded ad nauseum, on the 250th birthday of the US Declaration of Independence, about principles of equality and fairness. All men are created equal, wrote Thomas Jefferson. Well, some footballers are evidently more equal than others.
Imagine if Vladimir Putin and Russia had been granted such a favour at their 2018 tournament. There would have been hell to pay.
If Infantino were not the obsequious puppet we known him to be, then we might suppose that he would see how deeply suspect this decision in the hosts’ favour looks. That it stains the notion of fair play in football and will make some football fans want to boycott the entire fandango. He won’t, of course. He’s been too busy catching private jets between matches and being filmed in stadiums by host broadcasters to worry about the optics.
Just when it seemed that Gianni Infantino’s most demeaning act of self-flagellation before the altar of Donald Trump was to hand the man a Peace Prize
Folarin Balogun was sent off for this challenge on Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic
But the suspicion of intervention and backroom deals is damaging. Not just for the so-called governing body, but for the USA itself – a nation whose people, as hosts, have repaired so much of the reputational damage heaped on them by Trump, but one which will now carry the presidential stench into the last 16.
They will be morally compromised by anything Balogun delivers against the Belgians in Seattle.
Don’t let’s pretend that state interventions have not occurred at key moments in World Cups before. Because there’s the case of Argentina, under the rule of fascist dictatorship when they staged the 1978 tournament, who needed to put four goals past Peru in the second group stage to reach the final, in which they beat the Netherlands to win their first world title.
They were 4-0 up against the Peruvians after 50 minutes and eventually won 6-0. An anonymous Argentine civil servant later claimed his country had fulfilled a promise to ship grain to Peru, if they rolled over.
In 2012, former Peruvian senator Genaro Ledesma gave evidence to a Buenos Aires judge that the game had been thrown as part of the ‘Condor Plan’, an agreement between South American dictators to help each other in the 1970s. A pre-match visit to the Peruvian dressing room by Argentine dictator General Jorge Videla reminded the underdogs of their place.
But that was a compact struck by one the most dangerous and heinous leaders the tournament has ever shaken hands with. We expect absolute transparency from a contemporary governing body and the so-called leader of the free world.
Belgium are understandably furious about the Americans’ convenient stroke of good luck. We now wait to see if they refer the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, plunging a tournament which had seemed litigation-free into the world of the highly paid lawyers.
It is entirely their right to do this, though sources in Belgium told me last night that they were unsure whether their FA would want the controversy.
No such luck befell the two South African players who were sent off in the first match of the tournament, against co-hosts Mexico. Funny that
FIFA were busy spouting their bureaucratic nonsense in justification, citing Article 27 of their rules, which state that ‘the judicial body may decide to suspend, in whole or in part, the application of a disciplinary measure’. Bureaucrat-speak for ‘we reserve the right to make it up as we go on’.
Within minutes of that statement, Trump, who has shown absolutely no wish to be at any of the tournament’s games, took to his Truth Social platform to declare: ‘Thank you to FIFA for making the right decision and correcting a grave injustice!’
In the glorious last month or so, football has helped us escape the daily realpolitik of the world. This feels like a descent back down into the cesspit.
