Trump confirms he asked Infantino for review of Folarin Balogun red card

Donald Trump said on Monday that he personally asked Fifa president Gianni Infantino to review the red card shown to USA striker Folarin Balogun, saying he believed the dismissal was unfair but insisting he did not pressure football's governing body to overturn the suspension.

Uefa, the European game's governing body, also issued a furious statement, accusing Fifa of crossing "a red line" by making an "incomprehensible and unjustifiable" decision to rescind Balogun's automatic one-match ban, which it claimed undermined "the integrity of the game and the credibility of the competition".

Trump's remarks were his first public acknowledgment that he had personally intervened after Balogun was sent off in the USA's 2-0 victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina last Wednesday in the last 32. Fifa had suspended the striker's automatic one-match ban on Sunday despite officials previously saying the sanction could not be appealed under the governing body's disciplinary code.

Sources told the Guardian that Trump made three calls to Fifa beginning on Wednesday in an effort to secure the reversal.

"All I did was ask for a review because I didn't think it was a foul," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I didn't tell him what to do. I can't tell him what to do."

Trump added: "We're going to have a full team, and Belgium is going to have a full team, and you know what? If they beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us ... I say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020."

Trump also sought to distance Infantino from the decision. "I don't believe he made the decision," Trump said. "I think it was a committee that made the decision, and they made the right decision because, number one, it wasn't a foul."

In a statement issued after Trump's remarks, Infantino confirmed that he had received a call from the US president but said he told Trump the matter was before Fifa's independent disciplinary bodies.

"Fifa's judicial bodies are independent," Infantino said. "They operate autonomously, apply the Fifa disciplinary code, and decide cases based on the applicable regulations and the specific facts before them."

Neither Trump nor Fifa explained the legal basis on which Balogun's suspension was lifted.

Fifa announced on Sunday that Balogun's ban had been lifted for a 12-month probationary period, another unprecedented decision during a tournament which was explained by a brief reference to Article 27 of Fifa's disciplinary code, which gives its judicial committee the authority to "fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure."

Infantino's predecessor, Sepp Blatter, who resigned in disgrace following FBI raids on Fifa's headquarters in 2015 and was subsequently banned from football, was another to criticise Trump's role in the process. "Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls," Blatter wrote on X. "They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies."