President Donald Trump of the United States has stated that he would consider Belgium’s failure in the World Cup Round of 16 to be “rigged,” linking it to his statements about the 2020 US presidential election.
Trump made the statement at an Oval Office event in Washington to promote the introduction of “Trump Accounts,” an investment scheme for children, while addressing the controversy surrounding the US team’s buildup to Monday’s showdown in Seattle.
He said, “This game would have a big mark on it. If we lost, if we won, no matter what happened, you have to let them use their best players. And the game tonight’s going to be amazing, and we’re going to have a full team, and Belgium’s going to have a full team.
“And you know what? If they beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we’ll say it was—I say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020, but I won’t get into that.”
Trump also stated that he had called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to request a review of a red card decision against US player Folarin Balogun, while stressing that he had not influenced the outcome.
“I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” he said, adding that he “didn’t know what the hell a red card was” before the incident.
According to FIFA rules, the red card resulted in an automatic one-match suspension without appeal, ruling him out of Monday’s last-16 clash against Belgium in Seattle.
According to three unidentified individuals, Trump called Infantino last Wednesday to request a review of the decision.
FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee later suspended the ban for a one-year probationary period, citing Article 27 of its disciplinary code, which allows a judicial authority to entirely or partially suspend a disciplinary measure.
According to reports, the reversal—the first of its kind for a red-card suspension in more than 60 years of World Cup history—drew sharp criticism from European football’s governing body, UEFA, which said FIFA had “crossed a red line” and described the decision as “unprecedented, incomprehensible, and unjustifiable.”
