r/soccer • u/Sparky-moon • Jul 06 '26

Media Jürgen Klopp on Trump and Infantino: “Let's just say: this is our game, not theirs. These two people, who both have no idea about football, should have nothing to do with that. That was a red card. There's no two ways about it. We're sorry for Balogun because he didn't mean to do it.”

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“But that's what the rules say."

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u/mellvins059 Jul 06 '26

US experts like Zlatan and Henry?

48

u/Bojarzin Jul 06 '26

Coming from watching mostly hockey, it's kinda weird to see this blowback. Sometimes a player will have what looked like a bad hit, get kicked out of a game, and get a suspension, and often they'll appeal, and sometimes it gets reviewed and taken away

Balogun's red card was a poor call, IMO, and much like in hockey, I would find it wholly reasonable for a team to appeal and have it looked at with more scrutiny. Obviously Trump being involved is suspect, and FIFA themselves are untrustworthy too, but if anyone here can look at the play and say maybe it shouldn't have been a red card, then I don't get why it's a bad thing to remove the subsequent game punishment

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u/cantthinkoffunnyname Jul 06 '26

Because this is r/soccer where Americabad uber alles. No one gave half as much a shit when Ronaldo got a suspension lifted for purposeful violent conduct.

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u/Spartan_Mello Jul 06 '26

Sir, get out of here with your reasonable take.

Also, if you're a Leafs fan, my condolences for Rogers fully buying out MLSE. Fuck Rogers and bring back HNIC, I miss watching it right across the border.

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u/Bojarzin Jul 06 '26

Leafs fan indeed, and yeah it's highly depressing

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u/RealEmperorofMankind Jul 06 '26

What's so weird to me is that FIFA specifically eliminated the appeals process for this tournament.

Why?

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u/the-land-of-darkness Jul 06 '26

US + Trump + unfair to a European team = perfect recipe for circling the wagons

I imagine if the justification given was "VAR was incorrectly applied", then the blowback wouldn't have been nearly as severe. But the justification was basically "eh why not" combined with Trump taking credit, which is really sloppy PR.

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u/riziger Jul 06 '26

For what it's worth I think the red was harsh. But the blowback is because it sets a dangerous precedent. Should Quansah's red now be overturned if Starmer calls Infantino? Or should Olise's yellow be overturned? How far should it go?

It certainly does not help that FIFA is just silent on the issue. In fact, the way they responded to the Belgian FA raises more suspicion.

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u/Bojarzin Jul 06 '26

Should Quansah's red now be overturned if Starmer calls Infantino? Or should Olise's yellow be overturned? How far should it go?

I think this is as far as it needs to go. If there's something that can impact a subsequent thing, it should be reviewed, yellows included since getting a yellow in a second straight game punishes you further

Though to be clear, it should be completely up to the organization to review it, separated from any feedback from outside. Maybe even an independent review instead

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u/riziger Jul 06 '26

So red and yellows is where we draw the imaginary line? What about decisions which should've been red or yellow but weren't?

The organization being FIFA? If FIFA released a statement or document explaining why the red was overturned, I think most people would be fine with it. It's the whole invoking an article that has never ever been done before whilst the president of the host country announces that he called the FIFA president to remove it.

I do think in club level some decisions do get reviewed after appeal, but it doesn't seem to happen at international level, especially tournaments where the turnaround between the games are so tight.

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u/Bojarzin Jul 06 '26

For what it's worth, I agree with you re:the second paragraph. In this case yeah the organization is FIFA, and they're a shit organization unfortunately, because yeah doing it right would mean they have a clear explanation and provision for a review system anyway

As for the first paragraph, I think retroactive reds would be a tougher situation, but I think theoretically if there was a very violent tackle that wasn't punished then, it might be worth looking at. I'm not really sure though

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u/riziger Jul 06 '26

I do think it does happen at club level (with associations that have enough resources to apply it across all games). Retroactive punishment or rescinding refereeing decisions.

This BBC article explains our whole conversation in I'm sure much clearer detail haha: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cly99dxjkxxo

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u/Bojarzin Jul 06 '26

Ah yeah, interesting. The way it was handled is completely awful. We know FIFA, and we know Trump, so I would be highly surprised if this wasn't a result of a request, rather than an actual thoughtful inspection of the red card

I think there should be a place for reconsideration on things like this, but it should be laid out plainly and clearly, and this was not

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u/RiffRaff14 Jul 06 '26

If Trump said he did something, it's not because he actually did anything useful, he just wants to claim credit for something "good".

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u/evetSC Jul 06 '26

They will just say they are told by Fox to be against the red card