Hey, hi, how are ya? Welcome back to my blog!
If this is your first time here, I want to welcome you & thank you in advance for taking the time to read my thoughts & ramblings. For those of you who are around often you’re going to experience something that I rarely do. We’re going to talk about sports. WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! I know my audience for the most part, I know most of you aren’t sporty folks where fandoms are concerned. Believe you me, I’m not much of one either. I will sport a Royals shirt or cap, go to a watch party to support the Chiefs or Mizzou, occasionally check in with Sporting KC or the Nashville Soccer Club or the KC Current, but for the most part I tend to not be an adamant sports guy. I loathe most films about sports, I find most fan culture (in music & entertainment too) toxic, tribalist, & ludicrous. The exception to that general rule is the World Cup.
If you were around for my last blog, I wrote about the World Cup there as well. It wasn’t so much specifically to do with the games or the sport of soccer/football itself, but more about how The USA desperately needed the World Cup to happen here, despite the completely legitimate concerns & ongoing ransacking of our government & constitution. It’s given us a rekindled appreciation & love for humanity & reignited hope for so many of us. We’re definitely going to lean more into the game itself today because I want to talk about some news that is fresh off the press. Does it have a political/corruption edge, you bet your ass it does. We need to talk about a decision by FIFA that literally just came down the pipe an hour or so ago & the news that’s igniting outwards around it.
In the USA’s game against Bosnia & Herzegovina one of The USMNT’s top strikers, Flo Balogun, received a red card when his cleat came down on the ankle of Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic. The play was thrown into question &, after review from VAR, referee Raphael Claus deemed the violation worthy of a red card. This penalty not only kicked the USMNT down a player for the rest of the match, but also makes it so one of their start striker’s, Flo Balogun himself, is suspended through their game tomorrow evening in the round of 16 with Belgium. The internet then spent the last four days in furious debate on whether or not the card was justified, going so far as to have Donald Trump himself post that he will be trying to have FIFA overturn the violation ahead of Monday evening’s game. Well, the news just came in, & for the first time since the 1960s, FIFA has overturned the ruling on the field & will allow Balogun to play tomorrow evening against Belgium.
Naturally a lot of the international football community are pissed, Belgium especially. Many have called into question how non-partisan many of the referees have been in calling games during this cup, noting a severe lack of penalties called for favored nations or played, with heavy penalties falling on underdog countries or any players unlucky enough to go up against Messi or Ronaldo. This just adds to that fire. Additionally FIFA has insisted that the lifting of the suspension had nothing to do with Trump’s insistence, even though in the past they have capitulated to him left, right, & center, going so far to create the FIFA Peace Prize & make him the first recipient of it after he lost his bid for the actual Nobel Peace Prize. Then, just a few minutes ago, The New York Times posted a story…
In the NYT article they published that yes, in fact, Trump did call & speak to the head of FIFA about Balogun’s suspension today prior to them deciding to reverse the ruling, further casting doubt that this wasn’t done simply to appease Trump who had threatened to “shut the World Cup down if the call wasn’t reversed.” Yikes. So what happens next?
Well, naturally, as an American, I have been rooting for Team USA. As the internet saying goes “USA! USA! USA! (In a democratic way). I, as someone who has watched soccer most of my life, did not think that the play warranted a red card, as there wasn’t clear malicious intent on the part of Balogun. That being said, I don’t think that FIFA should bend the knee to King Trump just because he throws yet another temper tantrum & threatens to ruin the fun for everyone else.
The other side of this coin, that I feel is worth noting, is that the ref in question, Raphael Claus, has previous been accused of game fixing & dishing out unnecessary red cards. However when he went before the FIFA board to face these charges nothing came of it & he ended up as a referee for the World Cup. Now here we are again dealing with what a lot of people felt was an unfair red card. A yellow card for sure, not a red though in my humble opinion. Feel how you will about that.
So where do we go? What’s the proper move here? What will help to satisfy as many parties as possible here while still showing sportsmanship, respect, & decorum? I have a thought. (Again, just a lowly commentator here, go be upset elsewhere.)
I don’t think that head coach Mauricio Pochettino should play Balogun on Monday. I think the only way forward through this now that it’s a controversy mired in the greasy hands of Donald Trump, is to acknowledge & not go along with it. Don’t play into his hand, don’t further piss off the international community, bench Balogun yourself out of a spirit of not buying into the problem or picking a side. The incorrect thing to do, in my opinion, would be to parade Balogun around in defiance of FIFA which then plays right into the hand of Trump. The answer, to me, is to not play him. To show up with a stellar team & show the world ruling or not, we are still a capable team who is willing to play be the same rules that apply to everyone else. UNLESS of course it is somehow revealed that the ref himself had malicious intent or something of the like. Stay neutral, keep Flo on the bench for the game.
And that’s my two cents. I’m curious what your feelings on all of this are. Remember, we’re keeping it civil, it’s just a game. What should be Team USA’s course of action? Was the red card justified to you to begin with? Should the US play Balogun? What’s the correct path forward here?
As always, much love to you all,
-C