A few things come out of this, Fifa caused all this

1. Ronaldo was sent off and was due to miss the first game of the tournament FIFA lifted the ban

2. Messi if you remember committed the exact same foul in the first match and wasn’t even given a yellow card

3. Since the American player was sent off there has not been another red, did this mean Fifa knew they had to reverse the decision?

4. It would explain why the referee last night done everything in his power not to send off any Paraguay player, was he under orders?

Conspiracy theories will be flowing now. Hard to get your head around it without any real explanation - the FIFA articles don’t mean much to fans

Congratulations to the USA and their glorious dear leader Trump on winning the World Cup in this fantabulous 250th anniversary of freedom fries edition.

And congratulations to Ronaldo for being awarded USAs MVP after that incredible awarding of US citizenship just before kickoff. His double hatrick was glorious and I don’t think any of them looked at all off side.

5 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

Conspiracy theories will be flowing now. Hard to get your head around it without any real explanation - the FIFA articles don’t mean much to fans

Americans should be embarrassed but they wont be.

2 hours ago, dkw said:

Americas best player got sent of last game, FIFA have suspended his suspension so he can play next game. Absolute joke of a tournament.

I can't lie, it wasn't a red card.

2 minutes ago, OTL said:

Americans should be embarrassed but they wont be.

The US Soccer Federation didn't ask for this. They did not appeal this red. The Whitehouse exerted pressure on FIFA to change the decision.

I know we should not have political discussions - football only - on here. But a line has been crossed. Right wing leaders like Pedophile Trump really are meddling with and destroying our game.

For me, this makes the world cup illegitimate. You can't have a government getting involved to bend the rules.

9 minutes ago, TheCeleryKing said:

The US Soccer Federation didn't ask for this. They did not appeal this red. The Whitehouse exerted pressure on FIFA to change the decision.

The US Soccer Federation could withdraw Balogun from squad selection for the Belgium game.

Edited July 5Jul 5 by OTL

Infantino is as corrupt as Blatter. The guy needs to be removed from FIFA, but they're so corrupt that the next one would probably be just as corrupt.

Edited July 5Jul 5 by Scott Harris

It wasn’t a red. It was overturned.

People just love making headlines out of nothing.

You can’t retroactively punish a player for an essentially identical foul (Mr HGH’s which was less forceful but with a lot more intent) so the only fair thing to do was overturn the wrongful red for Balogun.

If it was in favour of an England player not a single person would be complaining instead they’d be championing the fairness of the decision being overturned.

But we live in a society where everything has to be controversial and sensationalised so…

1 minute ago, The Boehly Babes said:

It wasn’t a red. It was overturned.

People just love making headlines out of nothing.

You can’t retroactively punish a player for an essentially identical foul (Mr HGH’s which was less forceful but with a lot more intent) so the only fair thing to do was overturn the wrongful red for Balogun.

If it was in favour of an England player not a single person would be complaining instead they’d be championing the fairness of the decision being overturned.

But we live in a society where everything has to be controversial and sensationalised so…

Boom ! Denial Masterclass!

Just now, The Boehly Babes said:

It wasn’t a red. It was overturned.

People just love making headlines out of nothing.

You can’t retroactively punish a player for an essentially identical foul (Mr HGH’s which was less forceful but with a lot more intent) so the only fair thing to do was overturn the wrongful red for Balogun.

If it was in favour of an England player not a single person would be complaining instead they’d be championing the fairness of the decision being overturned.

But we live in a society where everything has to be controversial and sensationalised so…

It wasn't overturned for reasons written in law though, it was overturned because of pressure from the US government. The US football federation didn't even appeal the decision.

Be honest, do you honestly think they would have done this for any other player?

It hasn't been overturned ... the "automatic" one game ban has been suspended for a year !

8 minutes ago, OTL said:

The US Soccer Federation could withdraw Balogun from squad selection for the Belgium game.

They could. They might. Who knows. But it would be very very unlikely that they would.

6 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

It wasn't overturned for reasons written in law though, it was overturned because of pressure from the US government. The US football federation didn't even appeal the decision.

Be honest, do you honestly think they would have done this for any other player?

It’s the right decision though regardless of how it’s come about.

And Yes, CR7, Messi and POTENTIALLY Mbappe would’ve all received similar treatment.

17 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

For me, this makes the world cup illegitimate. You can't have a government getting involved to bend the rules.

Exactly how I feel too. It is a staggering decision by Infantino.

Absolutely praying that America get beaten by the Belgians. And if not the Belgians, anyone they play.

Trump is a cancer on the World.

1 minute ago, The Boehly Babes said:

It’s the right decision though regardless of how it’s come about.

And Yes, CR7, Messi and POTENTIALLY Mbappe would’ve all received similar treatment.

It hasn’t been overturned. So it’s still a red. Just a suspended ban at the request of Infantino’s master.

I think Infantino is hoping he might get his face added to Mt Rushmore, smaller, but next to his idols.

1 minute ago, The Boehly Babes said:

It’s the right decision though regardless of how it’s come about.

And Yes, CR7, Messi and POTENTIALLY Mbappe would’ve all received similar treatment.

No, it's not the right decision because it's not been done in the right way. Whether you think it's a red card or not, that was never getting overturned because it doesn't fit the criteria to be overturned. Also, like @Sexyfootball says, it's not even been overturned, it's been suspended. I don't know why you think it's okay for a government to get involved and putting pressure on the laws of the game like this. This shouldn't be allowed to happen. At this point, even Qatar feels like a less corrupt world cup than the US.

45 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

Conspiracy theories will be flowing now. Hard to get your head around it without any real explanation - the FIFA articles don’t mean much to fans

Its not really much of a conspiracy. The Pedophile President asked his friend Infantino to overturn the decision and the one game ban was suspended for a year. Its not really a conspiracy is it. It is in plainsight. This is the same infantino that gave the pedophile president a peace prize. lol.

No conspiracy. This is blatant corruption.

3 minutes ago, just said:

Exactly how I feel too. It is a staggering decision by Infantino.

Absolutely praying that America get beaten by the Belgians. And if not the Belgians, anyone they play.

Trump is a cancer on the World.

I was actually enjoying the US performances up until now but fully agree that I hope they get pumped now. And I know that's sh*te on the players because they didn't ask for this. Trump is an odious little c**t and Infantino is do bent they could write 6 series of Line of Duty about him.

This is turning out to be a quite extraordinary World Cup. In a year where USA lost to Belgium, Spain and France in the new "suspended" knock out stages on their way to the Final they became the 2026 World Champions. Congratulations to USA 😂

Norway 1-0 . . .nope, offside.

THAT should be a penalty.

35 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Infantino is as corrupt as Blatter. The guy needs to be removed from FIFA, but they're so corrupt that the next one would probably be just as corrupt.

The prick who says politics has no place in football has bent over backwards for the fat orange c**t and his party of pieces of sh*t the whole world cup. Hopefully one day he gets his comeuppance, a shame there's no morals in football anymore, as I would like to see otherel FA's call this out.

Edited July 5Jul 5 by dkw

22 minutes ago, just said:

Absolutely praying that America get beaten by the Belgians. And if not the Belgians, anyone they play.

this