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The US President has admitted to telling FIFA to revoke a ban on US striker Folarin Balogun as he hit out at the "suspect" referee who issued the red card. Balogun’s one-match suspension after picking up a red card was delayed after Trump placed a call to Fifa’s president Gianni Infantino. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #donaldtrump #fifa #fifaworldcup #football #soccer #sports #president #whitehouse #unitedstates #news #politics #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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0:00
I wanted to ask you, can you describe your phone call to Johnny Infantino about the red card
0:04
And Belgium is appealing the decision which you're asking about. You're asking me about the whole soccer thing
0:07
So, yeah, I did. I spoke to Johnny, who's highly respected, who's produced the most successful World Cup in history by, they say, four times
0:18
This isn't just a success. I actually said, Johnny, we've got all these games
0:24
Each one is turning out to be a Super Bowl. And we have all these games
0:28
You know, when you think of it, every game is like a Super Bowl. Yes, I watched last night
0:32
What a game that was with Mexico and England. I mean, two countries
0:37
I don't know the players. Although I think Kane is a great player. See, I played golf with him, and I like him a lot
0:42
He's a good golfer. But he's really great. But I watched, and no reason for me to watch
0:51
And you couldn't take your eyes off the game. Because I said, Johnny, you know, you have all these games because they edit games
0:57
in a country where really we don't it's not our main sport to put it mildly and this has been four
1:04
times more success we told me last night the numbers are four times greater they think 50 or
1:09
60 million people are going to be watching the game tonight and you know this is getting to be
1:13
super bowl numbers but you have a game tonight and they think they were they're projecting a minimum
1:19
of 50 million people watching a game we call it soccer it's called football i guess but we can't
1:25
I call it football because it gets a little, there's a little confusion. So yeah, you call it soccer. We're the only ones to do that. But we're football and football is great. But I've never seen anything like it. So I saw the play and I'm a person that loves sports and was a good athlete. And I understand sports really well, really well. And that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other
1:54
You can't take your foot and properly place it on somebody else's foot when you're going
2:00
No, these were two great athletes that got tangled up. And this referee who is a little bit suspect if you check his if you check his past I don want to say that because I don like to create controversy but but very suspect
2:22
If you'd like, I'll provide you with the past. He made a call that nobody could believe, you know, even people on the other side
2:30
They said, oh, we got lucky. Wow. That's and it's very interesting
2:34
They say they don't show him in slow motion. And I never realized that. I never heard of that before
2:39
That they're not allowed to review in slow motion because it's so different. Because you'll take one little quarter of a second and you'll see that a hand is touching a neck or you'll see something
2:49
Whereas when you see it in fast motion, it will look like two guys collided, which is really what happened
2:54
They got sort of entangled. He didn't do anything wrong. And he's our best player or one of our best players
3:01
A very vital player. And he gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't think it meant much
3:06
Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game, at least in the
3:12
next game. I said, boy, that's a big, you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair
3:18
But when they take your best player or just about, they have some great players, but
3:24
and they say you can't play. That's very unfair. That's, you know, it's one thing to penalize somebody for the game
3:32
But how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet? It's very unfair
3:36
do that. So yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to a man who's highly respected and by the
3:44
way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold. And he was good before this started. But you know
3:51
he really pushed it in this country. I'm the one that got them to do it. It was not Biden. Biden
3:57
was asleep. I got him to do it. In fact, it was very sad because I got him to do it. And if the
4:03
progression was normal, I would have been retired. Now, the Democrats are saying, man, we should have
4:09
just let him have his way. He would have had him. We would have had him gone. But I said, you know
4:15
the saddest thing is I got the Olympics and I got the World Cup. I tried to claim 250 years too
4:21
but that didn work They said that one is what it is No I tried but it didn work But wait wait So I got him I was so proud of it And then I realized you know I wouldn be president during that because I would have been out of office by that time I felt badly
4:36
The beautiful thing about what I did is I ran. I never thought of it
4:41
And then all of a sudden I realized, you know, I just got the Olympics and I totally got that myself
4:46
And I just got FIFA. I got that myself. We gave a little peace to Canada
4:50
gave a little peace to Mexico. I got that myself. And a lot of people helped, like that man right there
4:56
Kevin, a lot of people, you know that we worked hard on that and we got it
5:01
And but what we didn't know is how successful it was going to be
5:04
I thought I didn't know. I said, Johnny, is anyone going to show up? Because, you know, we're not again, we're not really
5:11
I think I think soccer is doing much better. But I couldn't imagine if if you would have said to any
5:18
very smart of these like people like this, that the numbers they're doing now would be happening
5:25
they've never seen anything like it think of it take the most successful olympics or the most
5:31
successful fifa and you look at what's happening you look at the numbers for this in the united
5:36
states uh just compared to fifa and it's it's numerous times more it's not like 10 percent more
5:45
two percent more five percent more which is more expected it's like four times more successful than
5:52
anything they've ever done in fact i said to johnny let's do it again next time and
6:00
he said that would be hard i said no no you do it again but at the same time you give it to somebody
6:04
else for the next one i don't know it's a little crazy idea but all i did all i did i asked for a
6:11
review because i didn't think it was a foul and you know again i'm good at this stuff i didn't
6:16
think it was a foul i thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got
6:20
That was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that, you know, would be different
6:27
And I think it's a terrible, if they wouldn't allow, you know, a top player, maybe the best
6:36
maybe among the best players on the team to play, I think it would have had a big stain
6:42
And I related just that field I didn tell him what to do I can tell him what to do But and I don believe he made the decision I think it was a committee that made the decision And they made the right decision because number one it wasn a foul
6:54
And you want to see a game with your best players. You don't want to say, how would you feel if I took, you know, we take Messi out
7:03
Look, you know, he ran into somebody. Or we took Ronaldo. Ronaldo, you bunked into somebody
7:10
We're going to take you out of a game. He's great. Well, Harry Kane, Harry Kane, we're going to take you out of the game, Harry, because you happen to hit somebody a little bit harder than you can't
7:21
You can't do that. If you would have taken him out, I think I think it would have really stained this incredible
7:27
We got to have our best players and they've got Belgium's got a great team
7:31
By the way, we have our best players and they have to have their best
7:35
And if we win or we lose, it's fair. Otherwise, let's say we lost him and we lose
7:42
a game. It would be a terrible thing. So I think they made a really brilliant decision. I think the
7:48
referee's call was horrible. And nobody talks about that. They talk about the red card like it's fine
7:53
Nobody talks. The referee's decision to red card. I didn't know what the hell a red card was. When I
7:59
found out, I said, you got to be kidding. This guy just hands up. Okay, your best player is not going
8:04
to play next week or in the next game. I said, wow, that's a lot of power. That's terrible
8:09
But then I looked at his past and it wasn't so great
8:15
Okay. I didn't think of it, but I would. He's a good man
8:24
I will tell you this. The people in Belgium, if they win the game, they can be very proud
8:34
If they would win the game with a player missing, it would have been a different feeling
8:40
You can't do that. And I'm very glad. All I did was ask for a review
8:44
I didn't say, you have to do this. This man is a smart, tough man, Johnny Infantino
8:50
He's a smart, tough man. And his stock has gone through the roof because
8:55
what the job he's done has been great. And I feel we have to have all the best players in the field
9:01
You can't take the best players. Yeah, please
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