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The US President has admitted to asking 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. Tom Swarbrick and LBC callers react to the president’s intervention. 11:19 | Martin argues that Trump ‘had every right to intervene’ 15:30 | David warns that this scandal could break football 18:11 | Richard thinks Donald Trump and FIFA ‘are as corrupt as each other’ Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #tomswarbrick #donaldtrump #fifa #fifaworldcup #football #soccer #sports #president #whitehouse #unitedstates #news #politics #LBC #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
Less sensational, though, has been this decision by FIFA
0:03
to allow a suspended US player to play in their round of 16 match tonight
0:10
something that the England manager, Thomas Tuchel, was asked about yesterday because during the game against Mexico, England also had a player sent off
0:18
Where does this start and where does this end now? Can we overturn it or not overturn it
0:23
What is going on? will seek to pursue because, like you say, there's surely a chance
0:29
Where do you draw the line? Yeah, where to draw the line is the question that I ask
0:33
I have no answer to that. Where does this end now? Where does this end now
0:38
The story relates to a United States player called Follerin Bellagin, who has perhaps been one of their better players in the tournament
0:45
Worth saying, too, for context, the United States are meant to be playing Belgium tonight in their round of 16 knockout game
0:51
Bellagin was sent off in their last match, in the US's last match against Bosnia
0:56
which incurs a one-match suspension. But following a call between Gianni Infantino, the boss of FIFA
1:04
who handed out to President Trump an award to, say, the FIFA Peace Prize
1:09
following a call between him and President Trump, FIFA has taken the absolutely unheard-of, never-before-enacted step
1:17
of not rescinding the red card, which has happened, but saying the suspension of the player himself has now been suspended
1:27
Even Sepp Blatter, himself banned from football for ethical breaches and acquitted of fraud
1:34
says this is a step too far for the organisation. UEFA, the European Football Association, has said
1:40
we express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision
1:47
what i'm about to play you made me wonder whether or not we're living in a in a simulation whether
1:57
we are living in a parallel universe frankly as the sun rose at 4 30 this morning on an england
2:02
victory that took forever with every minute the last one the 90th minute played out over 90 well
2:08
101 minutes that felt rather surreal this goes further than that and this is not a story just
2:14
about the ins and out of a particular football team, about the rules governing the game. You
2:18
might not care about football, but this story still matters because this now speaks to how
2:25
absolute power corrupts absolutely and how our American friends, newly minted at 250 years old
2:32
seem to have totally jettisoned any attempt at moral exceptionalism. Another example of how the
2:40
shining city on the hill being left not glittering but covered in thick algae and apparently unashamed
2:48
to revel in it politics and sport have collided this afternoon and the result is not pretty
2:54
president trump has been speaking from the oval office about his attempts to pressure fifa to
2:59
allow what he calls the best player on the u.s team to play in their round of 16 match tonight
3:04
having been sent off in their previous game, normally incurring at least a one-match ban
3:10
Folks, pin your ears back. This will leave your jaw on the floor
3:17
I did. I spoke to Johnny, who's highly respected, who's produced the most successful World Cup in history
3:24
by, they say, four times. This isn't just a success. I actually said, Johnny, we've got all these games
3:32
Each one is turning out to be a Super Bowl. And we have all these games
3:36
You know, when you think of it, every game is like a Super Bowl. Yes, I watched last night. What a game that was with Mexico and England
3:44
I mean, two countries. I don't know the players, although I think Kane is a great player
3:49
See, I played golf with him, and I like him a lot. He's a good golfer. So I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports and was a good athlete
3:58
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
4:09
that happened to crash into each other you can't take your foot and properly place it on somebody
4:14
else's foot when you're going no these were two great athletes that got tangled up and
4:22
this referee who is a little bit suspect if you check his if you check his past
4:31
i don't want to say that because i don't like to create controversy but but very suspect
4:37
uh if you'd like i'll provide you with the past he made a call that nobody could believe you know
4:45
even people on the other side they say oh we got lucky wow that's and it's very interesting they
4:51
they say they don show them in slow motion and I never realized that I never heard of that before That they not allowed to review in slow motion because it so different Because you take one little quarter of a second and
5:01
you'll see that a hand is touching a neck or you see something. Whereas when you see it in fast motion, it will look like two guys collided
5:09
which is really what happened. They got sort of entangled. He didn't do anything wrong
5:15
And he's our best player or one of our best players, a very vital player
5:19
And he gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game, at least in the next game
5:30
I said, boy, that's a big, you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair
5:35
But when they take your best player or just about, they have some great players, but and they say you can't play
5:42
That's very unfair. That's, you know, it's one thing to penalize somebody for the game
5:48
But how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet? It's very unfair
5:52
You can't do that. So, yes, I asked for a review by FIFA
5:58
I spoke to a man who's highly respected. And, by the way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold
6:05
But all I did, all I did, I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul
6:10
And, you know, again, I'm good at this stuff. I didn't think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled
6:17
That was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that, you know, would be different
6:23
And I think it's a terrible, if they wouldn't allow, you know, a top player, maybe the best, maybe among the best players on the team to play
6:35
I think it would have had a big stain. And I related just that field
6:39
I didn't tell him what to do. I can't tell him what to do. But, and I don't believe he made the decision
6:45
I think it was a committee that made the decision. And they made the right decision because, number one, it wasn't a foul
6:50
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
6:59
Look, you know, he ran into somebody. Or we took Ronaldo. Ronaldo, you bunked into somebody
7:06
We're going to take you out of a game. He's great. Or Harry Kane. Harry Kane, we're going to take you out of the game, Harry
7:12
because you happen to hit somebody a little bit harder than. You can't do that
7:18
If you would have taken him out, I think it would have really stained this incredible champion
7:24
We've got to have our best players, and Belgium's got a great team, by the way
7:28
We have our best players, and they have to have their best. And if we win or we lose, it's fair
7:34
Otherwise, let's say we lost him and we lose the game. It would be a terrible thing
7:41
So I think they made a really brilliant decision. I think the referee's call was horrible
7:46
And nobody talks about that. They talk about the red card like it's fine. Nobody talks
7:50
The referee's decision to red card. I didn't know what the hell a red card was
7:55
When I found out, I said, you've got to be kidding. This guy just hands up. OK, your best player is not going to play next week or in the next game
8:03
I said, wow, that's a lot of power. That's terrible. But then I looked at his past and it wasn't so great
8:11
a man who starts by saying i know everything there is to know about this sport i really know
8:19
what i'm talking about admitting on multiple occasions he had no idea what the implication
8:22
of a red card was in football not sure he knows the game back to front is there a more corrupt
8:29
pathetic anti-sport anti-fair play utterly contemptuous organization than fifa first they hand the peace prize out to Donald Trump or whoop-dee-doo then they destroy the rules of the
8:42
game on the say-so of the president of the host country who hasn't got a clue what he's on about
8:47
it is absolutely risible stuff this is it not and speaks not just to a football match not just to
8:56
the rules of the game not just to the integrity of a sport loved by hundreds and hundreds of
9:00
millions of people all over the world at their biggest marquee event for that sport all over
9:05
the world but to the the corruption of of absolute power and the inability of america generally not
9:14
just the president of the united states but even the u.s men's football team are saying hey great decision to jettison any idea of moral exceptionalism they're not going to play uh the moral high card
9:26
here they're not going to think actually the rules are bigger than us no they're going to accept it
9:30
Because that's what they've become. That is America in a nutshell. Happy birthday
9:35
There's no other word for it. We've just heard a description from the President of the United States. One, side issue. He played golf with Harry Kane. I wonder when they did that. Harry
9:43
Kane's a very good golfer, by the way. And two, we've just heard from the President of
9:47
the United States a description of corruption in action That what it is isn it A decision made by FIFA to reinstate a player who previously been suspended based on the rules of the game
9:58
with no oversight, no explanation, no transparency about how that's happened, other than the
10:04
President of the United States rang the boss of FIFA to say, I think you've got this one wrong
10:08
and it'd be a great shame to ruin the tournament, Johnny, if you don't put this player back on the
10:13
pitch. Now, Caroline says this, and I have a lot of time for this, and Caroline, I understand why
10:17
you would say this tom i get the whole principle of the matter but as a non-football fan really
10:22
don't care caroline i completely understand usa versus belgium in a round of 16 game at a world
10:29
cup you don't care i understand that point it's not just the football though is it this is another
10:35
example of a trump administration being able being able to ride roughshod over rules conventions
10:41
norms in order to get what they want. Look at the story last week about Trump and money
10:47
the amount of money that the Trump family has made during the course of Trump's presidency
10:51
completely unheard of, not normal, requiring as great scrutiny, not able to get it particularly
10:58
It's another example of the way in which the Trump administration wields power, but not also that
11:03
the way in which the Trump administration is acquiesced to, this time by FIFA, who
11:10
let's be honest have had a long history of allegations of corruption
11:15
03456060973 martin's in wakefield martin hi tom i think trump has every right to intervene and to express his opinions on the matter i think
11:26
ultimately sport to never be completely non-political i think there's always going to be
11:30
political matters going on and you know i was just thinking about the way in which
11:34
the the jockovich side were involved in australia when there was this
11:38
big hoo-ha about the vaccine and the uh the government of australia really made it into a
11:43
into a bit of a political football so to speak and so i think you know don trump recognizes that
11:48
when an injustice takes place in america when maybe a top player is unfairly treated then he
11:52
can intervene he can you know air his beliefs publicly he feels that the player was unfairly
11:58
treated the professionals in the sport didn't feel that and fifa has the right as as uh other
12:04
footballing bodies do to rescind a red card post the event to take it away to realize they'd made
12:08
catastrophic error they haven't done that well as i understand it if there's if there is a red card
12:14
they can sort of overturn it if they feel as if they can rescind it absolutely but they haven't
12:19
done that they've just said now the suspension doesn't count well yeah i mean that they've
12:23
adjusted things to allow the guy to play but yeah martin martin they've changed the rules of the
12:28
sport on the say so of the president of the united states who openly admits he doesn't know what a
12:33
red card is why have they done that i suppose because you know trump has a lot of a lot of
12:40
sort of weight in terms of what he believes and what okay so where do we now draw the line
12:44
um the king uh has a lot of weight in a lot of different matters and is quite friendly with the
12:48
president of the united states if the king decided to ring up the president said do you mind you've
12:52
got a good in with jani do you mind putting a word in to say jor-el quansa should be um available for
12:58
England's next game should have his suspension overturned. What happens to the rules now
13:05
I suppose they look at each individual incident on its own merits and they feel as if it's an
13:09
injustice. I suppose what politicians can do is they can highlight an injustice when they think
13:13
it's taken place and if Trump feels as if it was an injustice that this player hasn't acted
13:18
aggressively. Trump might feel that but Martin it might not actually be true
13:24
Well I mean anyone can sort of look up the clip online and they can see that actually it wasn't
13:27
the deliberate aggressive act and I think he was treated quite unfairly. In which case FIFA rescinds
13:31
the red card but they haven't done that they've just changed the rules to mean he's not suspended
13:36
on the say-so of the President of the United States in a way that is completely lacking in
13:41
transparency or precedent. Yeah I mean it is ultimately a game and I don't get too into
13:49
sort of bored but I think if it's an injustice that he was given the red card they should
13:54
absolutely rescinded and so they should have done it properly but i don't have too much against trump
13:58
you know airing his opinions and you know saying so when he thinks that injustice has taken place
14:02
but an organization like fifa should should say okay even if they literally disagree
14:10
do you think that's fine you think that's good reasonable it's fine for them to to look at the
14:16
individual incident and if they yeah they feel there's been some unfairness done then i think
14:20
yeah they can absolutely look at it but they haven't done that martin just to be really clear
14:23
about i know you're not a football fan that's fine sir they haven't done that they were happy
14:28
with the red card because it happened ages ago um but ever or happened on wednesday so ever since
14:33
wednesday they've been okay with it they've not rescinded it they've not said in hindsight we made
14:37
an error until the president of the united states rang three times they thought it was okay
14:43
yeah i mean i guess that the thing about trump he gets things done he makes stuff happen and um it may not be the most elegant way of rescinding the outcome but it at least a fair consequence considering he
14:56
To what extent, Martin, do you think Keir Starmer has FIFA'd President Trump
15:01
In that Trump rings, Keir Starmer says yes, and up until the Iran war, we acquiesced to Trump on lots of different things
15:08
We bent the rules too. I don't know about that I suppose Keir Starmer wants to be in his good books
15:16
because they're such a powerful trading ally and you want to make
15:21
reasonable relations with the US but that's a fair point Martin, thank you Bizarre
15:30
David's the first time calling Bista Hi Tom What do you think
15:35
I couldn't disagree or disagree more with what's just been on from Martin
15:42
I think now that football's this could break football and I think
15:49
UEFA need to take some action and threaten to withdraw. I think the threat
15:57
itself may well change the opinions of some of those Infantino etc
16:03
I mean you've got Seth Blatter coming out and saying and, you know, they're corrupt
16:08
One of the most corrupt presidents that FIFA has ever had. He was acquitted of fraud
16:14
but he was banned from involvement in football for ethical misgivings. The other thing that I would say is that
16:24
if I was a football player who'd been sent off at the World Cup
16:28
all the previous red cards, I'd sue for discrimination, for loss of earnings
16:34
damage to my profile. You know, this is just one step too far
16:41
And I think the common man may well just turn around and... Wow
16:46
So who's in the wrong here? Is Trump in the wrong for pressuring FIFA
16:50
or a FIFA in the wrong for giving in? Should Trump have pressured them at all
16:54
Or is this another example of an organisation, and sometimes we've seen countries do this too
17:00
give in, give ground, not put the principle higher than the president
17:06
Well, I think it's an independent organisation, which has nothing to do with Trump
17:14
I get that he's phoning up. What happens if King Charles phones up and says
17:19
can you rescind the card for the England player that was sent off last night? Quanness, is it
17:24
Quanness, Gerald Quanness. Quanness, Quanness. Sorry, I'm Scottish. No, I'm surprised you care, David, to be honest, if you're Scottish
17:32
I do care. I live in England and have done for 50 years
17:36
but I think now it's there's too much interference and I know it's too late
17:46
but there's trouble ahead for FIFA and Infantino and it tells the story again in part of
17:54
the presidency doesn't it and there's a difference between Trump complaining about it
18:00
and being told nah you're alright you don't know what you're talking about Mr President you don't know what a red card is
18:04
you unheard of football before all this and the body that he's complaining to actually giving in on it
18:10
David, thank you. Richard's in Rygate. Richard. Tom, go for it. You're saying everything and more
18:18
This is potentially a disaster. Your Scottish last caller's got it right
18:23
But it is a couple of things. I mean, we've got a red card for a reason, haven't we
18:28
I mean, I'm old enough to remember watching George Best getting hacked down
18:32
There really wasn't. The defenders back in the day knew they had a couple of free shots
18:37
and it was up to him to dodge them. We now get red card, which allows players to play
18:43
The automatic one-match ban is also there for a reason, because unless you discourage it, people will take advantage on the pitch
18:53
They'll play accordingly. Which just throws the whole thing into doubt, doesn't it
18:57
Which Trump has been very capable of doing on a whole slew of different issues
19:01
well the fact is a soft red i agree with it was a soft red it's in in on another day maybe it'd
19:09
have been given a yellow card it doesn't matter last night we got mexico scored from a soft free
19:16
kick didn't they it's um on another day that might not have been given so who's in the wrong richard
19:22
sorry to drag you away from there who's in the wrong is it trump for complaining or fifa for
19:26
giving in? Well, both. FIFA is now as corrupt as Trump. And Trump, you couldn't, you couldn't
19:34
you listen to him talk, and you think, this is, he seems to believe what he's saying
19:40
Someone at the governing body of the World Organization of Football might have said, you clearly don't know what you're talking about
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