Folarin Balogun has admitted FIFA’s controversial decision to suspend his one-game ban – following an intervention from Donald Trump – affected the USMNT ahead of their World Cup showdown with Belgium.
The 25-year-old was thrust into the center of a global storm after it emerged that the president had lobbied FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review the red card.
Balogun had been sent off during the USA’s win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an automatic suspension initially ruling him out of the last-16 game against Belgium.
But barely 24 hours before the game, the striker’s one-game ban was suspended, sparking allegations of favoritism and political interference. The USMNT went on to crash out of the World Cup with a 4-1 loss against Belgium.
On Tuesday, Balogun appeared on CBS Mornings and he admitted: ‘My initial reaction was that I was happy to be back in the team. But when I started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy.
‘And I could almost see within my teammates, a bit of nerves because it’s something that is so unique. But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could but it was difficult – a lot of outside noise and that’s hard to avoid.’
Balogun’s comments come days after Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House’s World Cup Task Force, conceded that the scandal surrounding the red card could have impacted US players.
Giuliani insisted he ‘stands by’ the decision to intervene, maintaining that – given all the money the US spent on the tournament – they wanted to ensure the tournament was ‘fairly administered on the pitch.’
But when asked by the Daily Mail whether the whole saga could have distracted Mauricio Pochettino’s team, he said: ‘Potentially.’
Giuliani continued: ‘I’m not a sports psychiatrist, so it’s tough for me to assess that. But I’m proud of this team, even in their lowest moments to be able to show the great character that they had, and that’s really where my focus has been.’
