Reporting on a Donald Trump press availability on Monday afternoon, where the president addressed the firestorm over his intervention to get US soccer player Folarin Balogun reinstated to play against Belgium in the World Cup despite a disqualifying red card, MS NOW’s Vaughan Hillyard said the president only made matters worse.
Speaking with host Ali Vitali, Hillyard pointed out that the president made an admission that he found startling.
“I think the president made one very head-spinning comment for all soccer fans around the world, and that was the fact that he didn't even know what a red card was before last week's U.S. matchup,” he told the host.
Specifically, the president told reporters, “I spoke to [FIFA President] Gianni [Infantino], who's highly respected, who's produced the most successful World Cup in history, by, they say, four times they gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant.”
Trump continued, “I didn't think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game. All I did, I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul. I related just that 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. I think it was a committee that made the decision and they made the right decision.”
According to Hillyard, Trump’s admission about his ignorance of the rules raised the stakes for FIFA.
"And so the Belgian Football Association has appealed this decision here by FIFA,” he reported. “ And what? We're about six hours away from kickoff here in this matchup tonight, Ali. And the question is, will FIFA, which has not expressly articulated why they reversed their decision in the first place to keep Balogun on the field tonight, whether they will take up that appeal from Belgium and reverse course.”
“This is not just a sports mess right now, but it's a global news mess here as well,” he added.