The Guardian pointed out violations of FIFA rules due to the policy

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has violated its own rules and regulations in order to satisfy the political interests of the United States. This was reported to Izvestia on July 6 by Romain Molina, an investigative sports journalist for The Guardian newspaper.

According to him, the decision to review the disciplinary punishment for US national team player Folarin Balogun was dictated solely by the personal intervention of American President Donald Trump. The day after the football player was shown the red card, the politician personally called FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Later, at a press conference, Trump confirmed the fact of the conversation, saying that there had been no violation.

"This is an amazing decision, clearly dictated by politics and personal interests. The amazing thing is that there are no regulatory rules in this regard. There have been no official protests or appeals from the United States Soccer Federation. It was Donald Trump's call that prompted FIFA to reconsider the decision," Molina said.

The journalist noted that the FIFA legal department, under the leadership of Emilio Garcia, urgently convened a disciplinary committee. At the same time, the Belgian Football Federation, which was a party to the match, was not notified of the process and did not receive clarifications on the final verdict.

The investigation highlights that FIFA has become part of Washington's geopolitical agenda. Molina attributed this to the fact that the US State Department had collected "a huge amount of intelligence information" about the organization's officials after the FIFAgate corruption scandal. As a result, the federation granted the States the right to host the club, men's and women's World Cups, and the FIFA legal department moved from Zurich to Miami.

"FIFA was shocked by what happened; they are scared to death of the United States. FIFA even had apartments in Trump Tower, they paid him money — it's just crazy. Infantino likes to be surrounded by influential people. You know, FIFA was also part of the geopolitical agenda of the United States and the Trump administration," Molina added.

According to the investigator, the FIFA leadership has developed specific personal relationships with many heads of state, which raises the question of systematic political interference in the affairs of world football.

Trump has lifted the suspension of an American football player at the World Cup. What the media is writing

Trump's call to Infantino became known on July 6. A day earlier, FIFA had changed its mind about imposing an automatic one-match suspension against Balogun, limiting itself to a probation period of one year. It was noted that the American leader had warned the president of the federation that the White House was even ready to involve lawyers in this case.

Balogun received a red card on July 2 in the 64th minute of the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which ended in a 2-0 victory for the Americans. Former FIFA President Joseph Blatter condemned the cancellation of this decision on July 6. He said that football should not become a platform for political power. But the European Commission, on the contrary, refused the same reaction. Its representative Eva Hrtsinova stated that this body respects the alleged independence of sports and the right of sports organizations to determine the criteria for participation in sports competitions.

Later, US President Donald Trump confirmed that he had indeed called FIFA President Gianni Infantino with a request to reconsider the decision to disqualify national team striker Folarin Balogun. He stressed that he made this conclusion because he is an athlete himself and a person who is very well versed in this field.