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5 min readTrump, Infantino and the political history of the World Cup
The US striker Folarin Balogun was sent off against Bosnia in a decision that was debatable but not outrageous. Under World Cup rules since 1962, a red card means suspension from the next match. Donald Trump called Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, probably more than once. Other Trump officials swung into action, talking to White House lawyers. FIFA rescinded the suspension. Balogun played against Belgium. The US lost 4-1. Trump, unusually proud of his rule-breaking, advertised it publicly. As FT journalist Simon Cooper puts it, "Usually rule breaking and rule fiddling happens behind stage. Now, everybody saw it."
The historical pattern of FIFA favoritism
This is not new. Cooper's book World Cup Fever traces a long history of FIFA tilting the scales, especially for host nations. The referee committee in the early 2000s was run by the head of the Spanish Federation, Ángel María Villar, alongside the Brazilian Federation's Ricardo Teixeira. Teixeira later fled to Miami amid corruption allegations he denies; Spanish prosecutors last year demanded a 15½-year sentence for Villar for fraud and embezzlement. "We can't know for sure that games were rigged by referees," Cooper says, "but this is not the way it should be done."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:12) **Guest Introduction** - Gideon Rachman introduces FT colleague Simon Cooper, author of *World Cup Fever*, to discuss the politics and history of the 2026 World Cup.
- 2 (01:39) **On-Field Tactics: The Triumph of the Individual** - Simon Cooper describes the tournament’s tactical shift toward building teams around one or two superstar individuals.
- 3 (02:57) **The Trump–Infantino Intervention** - Cooper details the specific incident where Trump called Infantino to overturn a suspension for US striker Folarin Balogun.
- 4 (03:57) **Historical Evidence of FIFA Rigging: The Referee Committee** - Cooper explains how the old FIFA Referee Committee was run by officials later accused of corruption.
- 5 (05:10) **The 2002 South Korea Case and the Heroin-Smuggling Referee** - Cooper presents the infamous 2002 World Cup as a clear example of suspicious refereeing favoring a host nation.
- 6 (06:36) **The 1978 Argentina–Peru Match** - Cooper recounts the well-documented case where the Argentine junta pressured Peru to lose 6-0, allowing Argentina to reach the final.
- 7 (07:43) **The US Role in Exposing FIFA Corruption** - Rachman notes the irony that the US, now aligned with Infantino, was the same country that brought down FIFA’s previous leadership.
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Show Notes
Gideon talks to Simon Kuper, FT columnist and author of World Cup Fever, about what distinguishes this World Cup from previous tournaments. What role has geopolitics played historically in the World Cup and is there any truth to some of the conspiracy theories surrounding this year's events? Clip: ITV Sport
Free links to read more on this topic:
Bellingham brace carries England past Norway into World Cup semi-final
World Cup shows US is ‘golden market’ for football, says Major League Soccer boss
How western Europe became a formidable football factory
Why are China and India so bad at football?
Inside the secretive Fifa committee that suspended the US red card
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