Trump defended FIFA overturning a red card right before USA played Belgium, and football fans have thoughts

Trump picked up the phone to save a World Cup suspension, and the player he saved barely touched the game.

Folarin Balogun was sent off in the USMNT's last 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, catching an opponent with his studs in a challenge for the ball. A red card carries an automatic one match ban, which should have ruled him out of the Round of 16 clash with Belgium.

Instead, Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino directly. "I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul," he told reporters, adding "I didn't tell him what to do. I can't tell him what to do."

FIFA's Disciplinary Committee suspended the ban for a twelve month probationary period, citing its own disciplinary code, and Infantino insisted the call came from independent judicial bodies operating autonomously. Belgium appealed hours before kickoff. FIFA knocked the appeal back and Balogun was named in the starting side.

The reaction was not subtle. UEFA said FIFA had "crossed a red line" with a decision it called unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable. The Royal Belgian Football Association said it was astonished. That is about as close to open contempt as football's governing bodies get with each other in public.

Here is the part that makes the whole saga feel a bit pointless. Belgium beat the USA 4-1 in Seattle. Charles De Ketelaere scored twice inside the first ten minutes, Hans Vanaken and Romelu Lukaku added more, and Balogun barely registered on the game. All that political capital spent on a player who did not change the result at all.

That is the actual story here, not really about football. A sitting president rang the head of world football's governing body over a single red card, got the ban lifted, watched two of Europe's most respected federations accuse FIFA of losing all credibility, and none of it mattered on the scoreboard.

Trump got his review. Belgium got the win anyway. Sometimes the biggest fight of the tournament happens off the pitch, and the actual match still doesn't care.