The New York Times reports:

President Trump called Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, on Wednesday and asked him to review the suspension of the United States’ top goal scorer in the World Cup, Folarin Balogun, after he was given a red card in the team’s match that night against Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to three people familiar with the conversation.

On Sunday, FIFA reversed the suspension, announcing that Mr. Balogun would be eligible to play Monday against Belgium.

The reversal is highly unusual and is the first time since 1962 that FIFA has allowed a player to appear in a game when they would have been suspended after being sent off in the World Cup. Mr. Infantino has spent years trying to curry favor with Mr. Trump. Last year, FIFA created and gave Mr. Trump the FIFA Peace Prize amid the president’s public, but failed, campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Belgian federation reacted with fury on Sunday. In a statement it described being “astonished by FIFA’s decision to declare suspended United States player Folarin Balogun eligible to play in the U.S.A.-Belgium match.” [Continue reading…]

Earlier, the New York Times reported:

When the red card came out of referee Raphael Claus’ pocket, Folarin Balogun just stood there, stunned.

“A ton of emotion” swirled inside him. For weeks, he’d starred at a “dreamy” World Cup. A lifetime of soccer work had led him into the American limelight. Then, suddenly, he was banished from a knockout game for an unintentionally rough challenge; he knew, in that instant, that his tournament could be over. He looked paralyzed.

And he felt anger. Millions of Americans did too. They felt the type of rage fueled by injustice that makes people, including countless soccer players, do impulsive, rash, harmful things.

But Balogun did none of that. He swallowed the emotions. He carried them on a slow, dejected walk to a Levi’s Stadium locker room.

Then he emerged, 30 minutes later, soon after a 2-0 United States win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, and shook Claus’ hand.

He did so to set an example, less for the soccer players who often seethe at refs, more for the 30-plus million people watching across the U.S. and many millions more around the world.

“There’s still lots of people we’re 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’s unjust,” Balogun said two days later. [Continue reading…]