SEATTLE — Andrew Giuliani, the head of the White House task force on the 2026 World Cup, told ESPN on Monday that he has no concerns at all over FIFA‘s decision to reduce Folarin Balogun’s suspension affecting the legacy or credibility of what the United States national team accomplishes at this tournament.
In fact, Giuliani said fans outside the U.S. should be happy that an “injustice” was corrected, pointing to U.S. assertions that the FIFA’s video-replay protocol was used incorrectly by the match officials as well as previous allegations of impropriety by the lead referee, Brazilian Raphael Claus.
“I think the legacy is that they had something that never should have been administered,” Guiliani told ESPN.
“I mean, you look at, you look at the letter of the law, the procedure was wrong, and the referee who made the call on that has a very checkered past. And so, I think the, the rest of the world, if you are looking for fairness and fair play … and that is the intent to be achieved, this is the outcome you want. You want what is fair to happen.”
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Balogun scored the opening goal for the U.S. in the 45th minute of its 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday. But he was then sent off in the 64th minute for what was deemed a bad challenge on defender Tarik Muharemovic.
FIFA on Sunday suspended Balogun’s red card, making him available to face Belgium in the round-of-16 match later on Monday and deferring his ban for one year.
On Monday FIFA reiterated that decision, ruling a request from the Belgium football federation (RBFA) for an explanation of Folarin Balogun’s suspended red card as “inadmissible on the grounds that the RBFA is not a party to the proceedings and, as such, has no standing to appeal the decision.”
Giuliani said that discussions about how to help U.S. Soccer with its appeal of the automatic one-game suspension Balogun was set to receive began immediately after the forward was ejected from last Wednesday’s round-of-32 match with Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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Giuliani talked about it with Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, on the plane after the match, while other staffers who are soccer fans were having parallel discussions in the West Wing.
“We put our heads together,” Giuliani said, “and kind of looked at it and said, well, there has to be way to correct this injustice.”
While some have criticized US officials for involving themselves in a sports issue, Giuliani said he believes this situation is similar — from a sporting fairness perspective — to the U.S. decision to ease travel restrictions for the Iran team so they could arrive in country two days before their match.
“That was in order to achieve parity and fair play,” Giuliani told ESPN.
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“So, this is not unique to the one United States team. This is something that we’ve wanted to achieve in terms of fairness. We wanted to make sure that if there is a referee with a checkered past that issues an irregular red card, then that wrong should be righted.”
Giuliani emphasized that U.S. officials only assisted U.S. Soccer in coordinating their own appeal, and reiterated that no one from the government, including President Trump, influenced the decision from FIFA’s disciplinary committee.
Giuliani also doesn’t believe that any sort of standard has been set with regard to U.S. government involvement in sports.
He pointed to previous instances when various government committees engaged with the NCAA on issues related to college athletes, noting again that the government in this instance only assisted U.S. Soccer in the federation’s action.
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He did acknowledge that others may see it differently but doesn’t think this circumstance paves the way for constant interference in sports from government entities.
“It’s not the first time that the U.S. government has engaged with major sports or major soccer when improprieties happen,” Giuliani told ESPN.
“So I certainly understand how it might appear that way, but I would say there’s certainly not precedent set here.”
