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The campaign to keep Folarin Balogun on the field for the United States’ World Cup run began just minutes after the team’s leading goal-scorer received a red card that would sideline him for the team’s next match.
Following Wednesday’s victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina, White House FIFA World Cup Task Force executive director Andrew Giuliani alerted President Donald Trump to Balogun’s punishment for a rash tackle — removal from the Bosnia match and a routine one-match suspension that would keep him out of a must-win encounter against Belgium.Trump and Giuliani had been speaking regularly about the World Cup for months. During the planning stages for the tournament, the president received frequent briefings on logistics, security and the U.S. team’s prospects. Once the competition began in mid-June, those conversations accelerated to multiple times each week.
By Wednesday night, the White House had committed itself to taking action over Balogun’s red card, which some soccer analysts believed to be a harsh punishment for the infraction. Giuliani, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and senior U.S. Soccer Federation officials — all of whom had watched the Bosnia match in person at Levi’s Stadium near San Francisco — began activating plans to challenge the referee’s on-field decision to issue a red card. Successful appeals of World Cup red cards are exceedingly rare.
That kicked off four days of coordinated lobbying, legal maneuvering and diplomacy that stretched from the Oval Office to FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich — and underscored how invested Trump’s inner circle had become in the second World Cup hosted on U.S. soil and the fortune of the U.S. men’s national team competing in it. Blue Light News spoke to a half-dozen U.S. government and soccer officials who were either directly involved in or briefed on the week’s events.
On Sunday, a day before the U.S. was due to face Belgium with Balogun on the bench, FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee announced that it was suspending Balogun’s one-match suspension for a year. Trump thanked FIFA for “doing what was right and reversing a great injustice.” The Royal Belgian Football Association and European confederation UEFA, of which Belgium is a member, are considering taking action against the FIFA ruling, according to a high-ranking UEFA official granted anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations.
On Thursday, Trump placed a call to FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The two men had built a friendship over nearly eight years, with Infantino becoming a frequent visitor to the Oval Office during Trump’s second term. They remained in contact even when events put U.S. government policy in conflict with FIFA’s objectives, according to people familiar with their relationship. That included when the Trump administration launched military strikes against Iran in February, jeopardizing the country’s ability to compete in the World Cup — a personal history that mattered when Trump dialed Infantino about the Balogun matter.
Trump asked about FIFA’s rules around the red card decision and the grounds for a suspension. Infantino listened carefully but made no promises about the outcome. FIFA declined to confirm any specific discussions but reiterated to Blue Light News that the decision to suspend the one-match ban was made by an independent disciplinary committee.
As U.S. Soccer’s legal team formally prepared and submitted its appeal to FIFA, Giuliani and Lutnick also offered to make White House attorneys available to assist with legal analysis if needed, according to people involved in the discussions.
At the same time, Giuliani and Scott Goodwin — a hedge-fund manager who had helped to personally pay the salary of U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino — zeroed in on the officiating history of referee Raphael Claus, who made the red card call on Wednesday. Articles examining previous controversies involving the Brazilian referee circulated among senior government officials as they evaluated every possible argument that could bolster the appeal, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
The matter quickly rose through FIFA’s legal and disciplinary channels. Emilio García, who oversees the legal affairs of soccer’s global governing body, became a central figure in advising Infantino on the available procedural options, according to people familiar with the process. García and other FIFA officials worked to determine whether the circumstances around Balogun’s tackle met the narrow standards that would allow the disciplinary decision to be revisited.By Sunday, the answer had arrived. FIFA announced that Balogun’s one-match suspension would be suspended, clearing him to play in the United States’ next match. Many, including European soccer officials, argued that the White House’s involvement violated FIFA’s policies about insulating sporting decisions from political influence.
“In order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at this FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament, the RBFA is investigating all potential options,” the Belgian association said in a statement released after the ruling.
FIFA insists that the decision was an independent one made by its 18-person disciplinary committee, but it would not say whether the decision was decided through a vote. Unlike other decisions made by the committee, FIFA has not published a report on the decision.
Soon afterward, Trump and Infantino spoke again. They are expected to jointly award the World Cup trophy to the tournament’s winning team after the final match, on July 19.
Tim Röhn contributed to this article.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s top officials and brothers of the country’s new supreme leader emerged into public view Sunday to attend the funeral prayers for the late Ayatollah Ali Khameneisignaling a new confidence in their safety as calls grew for the killing of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Their presence before hundreds of thousands of people in the capital Tehran would have been unthinkable during the Iran war, which saw airstrikes in its opening moments on Feb. 28 kill the 86-year-old Khamenei, his family members and other officials.
Israel also targeted others who appeared publicly during the war, in at least one case likely using their public appearanceto fix their position for a strike.
But still unseen was Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father. Israel has threatened to kill him as well as he leads a theocracy now negotiating with the United States over a permanent end to the war and over Iran strangling traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global energy supplies.
Ziba Naderi, a 42-year-old nurse attending the funeral Sunday, said Iran needed to follow whatever Mojtaba Khamenei commands in regards to the nation.
“I heard the call for revenge, but our leader should say what we need to do,” she said. “And we must listen to him.”
Funeral includes prayers and calls for revenge
Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old Shiite cleric, led the prayers at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla for Khamenei and his late family members.
On hand were Khamenei’s sons Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa, who haven’t been seen since the war. Revolutionary Guard head Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who only had been photographed for the first time since the war on Thursdaycould be seen in the crowd by Associated Press journalists, flanked by plainclothes security forces as he wore a black baseball cap.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Esmail Qani, who leads the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, also attended.
Their appearances came as posters and graffiti at the Grand Mosalla called for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mohammad Rasouli, a poet who emceed the event prior to the prayers, drew calls of “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Speaking to the crowd over loudspeakers at the funeral, Rasouli asked, referring to Trump, “Why is the most bastard man in the world still alive?”
The question drew cheers from the crowd, and again when Rasouli said “the world is no longer a good place for” Trump. It marked the first, direct threat to Trump’s life by an official during the funeral.
Trump threats grow at funeral
The American president was giving a speech at the same time across the world in Washington, D.C., for the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.
“We’ve had tremendous success,” Trump said about the U.S. military. “You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We wiped it out, wiped out their military.”
A far-larger crowd for the funeral than the day before attended Sunday. Mourners dressed in black walked to the site, carrying banners and flags honoring Khamenei and also calling for Trump’s killing.
“I came here to shout and seek revenge,” said Gholamreza Sabooni, 29-year-old man who works in a grocery. “They killed our imam, we should kill their leader, Trump.”
U.S. federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years. That stems from Trump ordering the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimaniwho had led the Quds Force. Iran repeatedly has denied plotting to kill Trump, though hard-line propaganda footage long has suggested Trump was in Tehran’s crosshairs.
Trump meanwhile promised to destroy Iran’s very civilizationduring the war among a variety of other threats.
Funeral postpones talks with US
Khamenei’s body will be transported to cities in Iran and neighboring Iraq, with authorities planning to drive his casket and others through the streets of Tehran on Monday. Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which will end Thursday as he is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Khamenei’s place of birth.
Authorities offered no attendance count for the event Saturday and Sunday. Other cities across Iran also held mourning ceremonies.
For now, talks over reaching a permanent end to the war are on hold until the end of the funeral. Having a major turnout could prove important as Iran tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuzin negotiations as concern lingers that Israel could attack again.
“Our foreign policy should not be shaped in a way that allows our martyred leader’s blood to be dishonored and other countries can afford to do such things, without any serious response from our government and diplomatic system,” mourner Mohammad Reza Sharifi said.
BRUSSELS — Even before they face off tomorrow night in Seattle, Belgium and the the United States are already at loggerheads over America’s birthday celebrations.
U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White insisted that Brussels’ historic Parc du Cinquantenaire was left spotless after his lavish festivities marking 250 years of American independence, as Belgian authorities probe whether fireworks damaged one of the capital’s historic buildings.
“We are in immediate contact with the Belgian company that was hired to coordinate all event logistics, including the fireworks company,” White wrote on X on Friday. He said the contractor would “remediate where it is required” and insisted that “Cinquantenaire has never looked any cleaner than it was the day after we cleaned up after our event,” posting photographs of the park looking immaculate.
More than 8,800 invited guests attended the June 28 celebration — one of the biggest diplomatic receptions ever staged in Brussels — organized by White, featuring a large fireworks display beneath the triumphal arch and a gala held in Cinquantenaire’s Royal Museum of Art and History building.
The ambassador’s response came after Flemish newspapers De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad reported that Belgium’s Buildings Agency had opened an investigation into possible damage to the museum.
The Building Authority confirmed that “fireworks debris was found on the roof, and certain limited areas of the roof appear blackened” in a statement to Blue Light News, adding that “analyses are still ongoing” before being able to comment on the scope of any repair work.
Belgian Buildings Minister Vanessa Matz has urged caution, saying investigators must first determine whether any damage was caused by the fireworks display or by the severe thunderstorm that swept across Brussels the previous night.The celebration reportedly cost around €5 million, with White raising the money from roughly 220 Belgian and American companies.
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