Trump + FIFA = Corruption squared
What do you get when you put Donald Trump and FIFA together?
Corruption squared.
Trump is the most corrupt president in US history. He makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln, thumbing his nose at the Emoluments Clauses while raking in billions for himself and his family, handing out taxpayer-funded no-bid contracts to his corrupt and incompetent cronies.
FIFA is, as Andrew Zimbalist, the professor of economics at Smith College and one of the world’s most foremost authorities on the business of sports, put it “the most corrupt” sporting organization in the world. They make the International Olympic Committee look like the Red Cross.
It turns out Trump placed a call to Gianni Infantino, the capo di tutti i capi of FIFA, who somehow managed to stop kissing Trump’s rear end long enough to rescind a one-game ban against US forward Folarin Balogun so he can play in Monday night’s match against Belgium.
This is the same Gianni Infantino who gave Trump a phony baloney “FIFA Peace Prize” just weeks before Trump launched a needless war against Iran, which managed to kill a bunch of Iranian school children in its opening salvos.
FIFA banned Russia from the World Cup after it invaded Ukraine. After the US started bombing Iran, throwing the world’s economy into chaos, FIFA didn’t ban the US. Instead Infantino doubled down on sucking up to Trump.
In December, the same month FIFA “honored” Trump with a made-up award, Trump’s Department of Justice asked a judge to dismiss the last remaining charges it had brought in a massive 2015 bribery indictment of FIFA. Federal prosecutors told the judge that bribery was no longer a priority of the Trump administration.
But doing favors for his corrupt buddies remains a big priority for Trump and his administration. And there’s always a quid pro quo.
The Belgians, understandably, are furious, saying FIFA has broken all of its own rules, undermined the integrity of the game, and given the Americans an advantage they don’t deserve.
All of that is true, even if it is also true that FIFA routinely protects the game’s biggest stars. FIFA cut a break to Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal’s star, suspending a red-card ban that would have seen him miss Portugal’s opening World Cup match.
Anybody with eyes knows that Lionel Messi, soccer’s GOAT, should have been given a red card and suspended when he raked an Algerian player’s calf and Achilles tendon with his studs in Argentina’s opening World Cup match. But FIFA’s referees routinely turn a blind eye when stars do things for which ordinary players would receive a yellow card warning or a red card expulsion.
It is also true that the red card handed out to Balogun, for stepping on the ankle of a Bosnian player, was harsh. It was given, and Balogun was ejected from that game and banned from the next, after the ref looked at the play repeatedly in slow motion. Balogun wasn’t even looking at the Bosnian player and stepped on the ankle accidentally. Soccer fans and analysts were divided on the call, and the Bosnian player was able to continue playing without any problems.
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But that’s irrelevant to the shameless intervention by Trump, who has a history of pardoning criminals who attack and beat police officers.
The great irony, surely lost on Trump, who thinks irony is how you describe the nutritional value of spinach, is that Trump went to bat for an American player who, if Trump had his way, would have had his citizenship stripped away.
Balogun’s mother, a Nigerian living in London, was pregnant with him when she visited relatives in Brooklyn. When she showed up at the airport for her return flight to London, authorities determined she was too far along to fly safely.
If the Supreme Court didn’t, barely, slap down Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, Balogun’s citizenship would have been in jeopardy.
Trump was crowing Monday morning in the Oval Office about getting FIFA to lift the ban against Balogun, saying only he could have done so. He babbled about Joe Biden not being able to get FIFA to do anything because Biden was always asleep.
Trump also urged people to “look up” the referee who gave Balogun the red card. Sort of like when Trump encouraged his supporters to beat up journalists. The man is repulsive.
By sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, Trump has put the US team in an impossible position. If the US beats Belgium, and especially if Balogun plays well and scores, advancing to the World Cup quarterfinals for only the second time in nearly a century of play, it will be tarnished.
And if the US loses, critics will simply remember and relish that even Trump’s thumb on the scale didn’t work, and many will not remember how well the US has played in the group stage and knockout stage. They’ll just remember Trump used his influence to get his corrupt pals in FIFA to violate its own rules.
The MAGA cult believes everything Trump touches turns to gold.
The rest of the world knows that everything he touches turns to something used as fertilizer.
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