{"id":540,"date":"2026-07-06T21:10:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T21:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=540"},"modified":"2026-07-06T21:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T21:10:51","slug":"trump-is-trying-to-rig-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=540","title":{"rendered":"Trump Is Trying to Rig the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In a decision that should affix an asterisk to any US Men\u2019s World Cup victories going forward, FIFA, the ruling body of international soccer, has decided to \u201csuspend\u201d a red card that a game official issued to the USMNT\u2019s best player, Folarin Balogun, in the team\u2019s 2\u20130 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina. This makes Balogun eligible for the round of 16 match tonight against Belgium.<\/p>\n

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Soon after scoring his team\u2019s opening goal\u2014and nearly hitting in two others\u2014Balogun stepped on the ankle of Bosnian Tarik Muharemovi\u0107 while going for the ball. It appeared inadvertent\u2014no worse than a dozen other collisions that didn\u2019t draw a red card. The call was widely seen as overly harsh, but he did foul. All in all, the referee\u2019s call was nothing too out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Balogun was crushed. In a classy response, he said, \u201cI never want to react out of anger and out of emotion. There\u2019s still lots of people we\u2019re inspiring, little kids, boys and girls who are watching, and we have to show them the correct way to handle things, even when you think it\u2019s unjust.\u201d He kept his calm knowing that this suspension could doom his squad to a loss this evening.<\/p>\n

I think the referee made a bad call\u2014yet the call was made. It was upheld by replay review, and that\u2019s just the way sports go sometimes\u2014that is, unless the people behind the curtain are compromised and corrupt. Then you get to make the rules up as you go along.<\/p>\n

FIFA leader Gianni Infantino has spent much of the last four years shining Donald Trump\u2019s shoes and kissing his ass. Infantino invented a FIFA Peace Prize to bestow on Trump, lent FIFA\u2019s name to the USA\/Israel genocide in Gaza by signing a strategic partnership with Trump\u2019s so-called Board of Peace, and flatters Trump endlessly. From a distance, it certainly seems like Infantino is a dog who barks on command. The New York Times<\/em>, among other outlets, has reported that the White House reached out to Infantino regarding the suspension. Then Infantino and FIFA waited until after the Independence Day festivities to drop the news on the soccer world. Trump immediately put himself at the center of it, posting, \u201cThank you to Fifa for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice.\u201d Trump has practiced sleazy backroom corruption his entire life, but now in his senescence, he wants to be valorized for it\u2014to be treated like a statesman for the behavior of a sleazy mobster.<\/p>\n

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Trump put the screws to Infantino, and then FIFA discovered Article 27 of the disciplinary code, which allows the ruling body to step in for any decision other than match-fixing and reverse the decisions of referees and replay officials. Ironically, \u201cmatch-fixing\u201d is exactly what Infantino is doing by dramatically altering the game between the USMNT and Belgium.<\/p>\n

As for Belgium, the Royal Belgian Football Association is furious and calling for an immediate investigation over how such an interference could be allowed. The Union of European Football Associations issued its own statement that Infantino had crossed a \u201cred line,\u201d saying, \u201cWe express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.\u201d Belgian coach Rudi Garcia thought the reversal was a prank.<\/p>\n

This is a likable US team\u2014made up of immigrants, the children of immigrants, birthright citizens, and players with Tommie Smith and John Carlos tattoos who speak with pride about how their team is a true representation of America. But it is now being given an unfair edge. The system is seemingly rigged in its favor, because the greasy gangster in the White House wants it that way. One can\u2019t help but recall the 1978 Argentina World Cup, when FIFA is believed to have been party to match-fixing so the host country, led by a military dictatorship, could win it all. Then and now, FIFA is an organization of lickspittles with an outsize affection for authoritarians. Balogun should not have been suspended, but bad calls are a part of sports. What should never be a part of sports\u2014although such actions dot its history\u2014are oligarchs and autocrats ordering their toadies to rig the rules. That history is core to FIFA, and now it\u2019s as American as apple pie.<\/p>\n

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The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Is Trying to Rig the World Cup - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=540\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Is Trying to Rig the World Cup - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=540\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-06T21:10:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=540#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=540\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Trump Is Trying to Rig the World Cup\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-06T21:10:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=540\"},\"wordCount\":766,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=540#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/933b3dd2211190be1283c7e54841f47f.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=540#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=540\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=540\",\"name\":\"Trump Is Trying to Rig the World Cup - 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