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First Trump tampers with the red card ruling and now Egypt accuses FIFA of fixing matches so this leaves Tom Swarbrick wondering if FIFA is 'fit to govern' football. Egypt has extraordinarily claimed its World Cup clash with Argentina was rigged in favour of the South American side, which came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2. This comes as the US President admitted to telling FIFA to review a ban on US striker Folarin Balogun after their game against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Speaking at the White House, he condemned the referee’s "suspect" decision to give Balogun a red card. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #tomswarbrick #worldcup #fifa #football #infantino #argentina #egypt #usa #donaldtrump #trump #uspolitics #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
Last night, Messi's Argentina were 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go against Egypt
0:04
Incredibly and controversially, Argentina won 3-2. Egypt star Mustafa Zico then accused the World Cup of being fixed
0:12
He was denied a goal when Egypt were one-up, while Mohamed Salah had claimed a penalty
0:17
before Argentina went on the counter-attack and won the game. The referee was not fair, said Zico
0:22
The injustice was clear. It is clear he said that this tournament has been fixed
0:29
Nick McGehan is director and co-founder of Fair Square, which has pressured FIFA over its governance
0:34
since before the Qatar World Cup in 2022. Thanks very much for coming on the show, Nick
0:38
What's the difference here between a team that have lost and have saw losers about it
0:43
and any evidence that they've been mistreated? Hi, Tom. Thanks for having me
0:49
I mean, I think the problem is that because of how Trump has behaved
0:54
and because of how Infantino appears to have bent to this pressure that he's been placed under
0:59
over the Balogun red card. But I think that's sort of bleeding into conspiracy theories
1:06
and probably fueling conspiracy theories. I'm a person that loves sports and was a good athlete
1:11
And I understand sports really well, really well. And that wasn't a foul
1:18
That wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed
1:22
that happened to crash into each other. You can take your foot and properly place it on somebody else foot when you going No these were two great athletes that got tangled up And this referee who is a little bit suspect
1:42
if you check his past. I don't want to say that because I don't like to create controversy
1:49
but very suspect. If you'd like, I'll provide you with the past
1:54
He made a call that nobody could believe. You know, even people on the other side, they say
2:00
oh, we got lucky, wow, that's... And it's very interesting. They say they don't show them in slow motion
2:06
And I never realized that. I never heard of that before, that they're not allowed to review in slow motion
2:11
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
2:17
or you'll see something. Whereas when you see it in fast motion
2:20
it will look like two guys collided, which is really what happened. They got sort of entangled
2:27
He didn't do anything wrong. And he's our best player or one of our best players
2:31
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
2:36
Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game
2:40
At least in the next game. I said, boy, that's a big, you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair
2:48
But when they take your best player or just about, they have some great players
2:52
But, 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
3:01
But how do you penalize them for a game that hasn been played yet It very unfair You can do that So yes I asked for a review by FIFA I spoke to a man who highly respected and by the way whose level of respect has gone up tenfold
3:18
So it's giving fuel to people who, you know, can make these claims and who can argue that every time a decision goes against them
3:24
it relates to, you know, some sort of FIFA malpractice. So, I mean, I didn't see the game, to be honest, and my views on refereeing decisions aren't worth a jot
3:32
but I think the larger issue, the much larger issue is how Infantino is bending to the will of Trump
3:38
and what that says about FIFA as an organisation. There are fears that, there have been some fears for time
3:43
that FIFA have a bias in favour of the nations they like
3:48
whether it's in this World Cup I guess it would be Argentina or France because they want the big nations with all the star players to be there
3:55
at perhaps the expense sometimes of the plucky upstart countries who might just about beat them
3:59
yeah and again I think that is entirely plausible right when you look at what FIFA is FIFA is an
4:06
organization that looks to accumulate as much money as possible because money leads to power
4:11
and power for guys like Infantino um so if they think that broadcasting revenue is going to be
4:16
hiked up because because these star players are playing um then you know it's it's it's likely
4:22
that they want them involved now does that does that equate to them you know meddling and fiddling
4:26
so that they've reached the latter stages. That's a big leap. You need some serious proof to say that
4:31
But you can understand why people might think that. I think it's hard to say. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, Nick
4:36
I think it's incredibly difficult for an organisation to determine the outcome of a football match in advance of it But I am a bit worried because going into the quarterfinal match on Saturday England have four players on yellow cards
4:49
and if any of those players, including Kane and Bellingham, receive another yellow card, they are banned from the semifinal
4:54
And I note here that cards per fouls for countries in the World Cup
5:00
among the quarterfinalists, we're top. England are top. We get a card every seven fouls
5:05
Do you worry that there might be a way in which Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are booked for nothing here
5:12
To be quite honest, I'm not that worried about Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham. I could tell from your accent, Nick
5:16
that I wondered whether you were a little bit less interested in England than I am. It's a valid point
5:21
I mean, again, I think my view on on-field matters isn't really worth much
5:27
and I don't believe in conspiracy theories either. I think the point is, though, that you have these concerns
5:32
and a lot of people listening to this will have these concerns. Let's go back to why we have these concerns
5:36
We have these concerns because FIFA isn't being governed properly. Because Infantino is unfit to govern FIFA and FIFA is unfit to govern football
5:43
And now these issues that we've been talking about for a very long time, which have tended to be off the pitch, are now bleeding onto the pitch
5:49
And that's the problem that we're facing. And people are left asking, what is it that we're actually watching here
5:55
Exactly. Like, I mean, for a long time, you know, we're like a human rights organisation
5:59
We've been talking about off the pitch stuff for a long time. but it has been on the radar for a long time
6:03
that this level of misgovernance eventually is going to bleed onto things on the pitch
6:07
It has already, to be quite honest, but it's become very evident, very blatant in this World Cup
6:12
So, yeah, I think it's, as I say, it's entirely reasonable that people would have these concerns
6:17
going into a match like that
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