White House’s World Cup head defends Trump lobbying Fifa over red card | World Cup

Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House’s World Cup working group, argued that Donald Trump lobbied FIFA to lift the penalty received by American player Folarin Balogun in the match against Belgium on Monday.

US president blames Brazilian referee Father RaphaelThe one who showed Balogun a red card in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina seemed “a bit suspicious when you look at his background”. This was apparently a reference to the Brazilian senate investigation into match-fixing in 2024, which is examining how referees are appointed to matches but does not accuse Claus of wrongdoing.

Giuliani told reporters: At the Foreign Press Center in Washington DC: “We find it highly suspicious that there is a referee who has previously been investigated for match-fixing, particularly for irregular red cards, and who has given out irregular red cards.

“And then when you add in the fact that the process was applied incorrectly because of the way VAR was initiated there. Contact fouls, you can’t actually take advantage of the slow action on VAR, and that’s what they did. So when you put those two facts together, what we found was: [that] It was very, very suspicious.

He added: “Look, the US government, whether it’s at the ballot box or on the field of play, we want fair play, okay? And for us, at least, like most Americans, like most people who have a neutral view on this, we thought it was very questionable. And we’re happy that US Soccer was able to appeal and we think the right outcome was reached.”

Disputing a Brazilian reporter who said that Claus had only testified about the match-fixing investigation and that he was not the target of that investigation, Giuliani admitted: “He has not been charged with crimes. We understand that. What I am telling you is that it was similar to a match-fixing investigation that was conducted in Brazil a few years ago, where they gave out ‘irregular red cards,’ right? So that’s the facts of the case. He was similar to that investigation.”

The USA withdrew from the tournament after losing 4-1 to Belgium, who were celebrating their victory. Parodies Trump’s YMCA dance in the locker room. Critics argued that the president’s intervention galvanized the Belgian team and ruined much of the global goodwill the United States had earned as the host nation.

FIFA defends Claus. A statement this week said: “He has consistently demonstrated the highest standards of professionalism and integrity throughout his career.” The Brazilian Football Confederation added: “There is nothing in his record that questions his integrity or supports any suspicion of wrongdoing.”

At Wednesday’s briefing, Giuliani also dismissed criticism of the logistical arrangements for the Iran national team, which has its base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, rather than the United States, despite playing its matches in Los Angeles and Seattle. “Flight time – airtime – from Tijuana to Los Angeles is 27 minutes, which made it easy to decide that the day before was a good time to allow the team to come into the country and give them plenty of time,” he said.

“We also made it clear that they would have to leave that evening. That’s not undue stress when you think about the National Football League, the NFL; teams often take cross-country flights immediately after the game ends.

“And if you look at the U.S. national team, after they went to Seattle for their second game against Australia, they left right after that game to go back to Orange County; they had a very similar flight time to what the Iranians did there. Then for the Seattle game against the Iranians, we let them arrive two days earlier because it was a smooth movement there.”

With just eight matches remaining, Giuliani, son of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, declared the World Cup a historic and economic success, reporting that more than 6.5 million fans had already attended the games, almost double the previous record of 3.5 million set by the United States in 1994.

He stated that Trump expressed concerns about high ticket prices, but FIFA received requests for more than 500 million tickets for 7 million tickets. “So from a supply-demand perspective, it’s completely out of whack. There’s a lot of demand to come to the United States to watch the World Cup.” Approximately 4,547 tickets per game were distributed to U.S. military veterans.

Giuliani said the administration has facilitated entry for millions of legal visitors without compromising security. In the first half of the financial year, more than 5 million Esta applications were processed for the 19 eligible Esta countries. B-1 and B-2 visa interview wait times have decreased significantly; In Buenos Aires, wait times dropped from 300 days to less than two weeks, and in Brazil, wait times dropped from 600 days to less than a month.

“There was a lot of talk earlier about the president not being welcome or whatever it was that was being talked about,” he said. “I can tell you this: I think the President is one of the most hospitable hosts I could imagine for this World Cup.”

The tournament broke previous soccer broadcast records in the United States, with an estimated 1.3 billion viewers worldwide watching the U.S. team’s opening match against Paraguay and a whopping 2.7 billion viewers watching the Argentina-Cape Verde match, according to Fifa. “It’s incredible when you consider that over a third of the world tuned in to watch this game,” Giuliani said.

Securing 11 host cities in the United States required a massive federal mobilization. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have seized more than 600 drones since the tournament began. Giuliani announced that 1,487 drones were detected in temporary flight restriction zones, 646 of them were seized and 13 were arrested.

As the tournament enters its final stages, he looks optimistically towards the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2031 Women’s World Cup, emphasizing that the United States has proven its capacity to host major global events.

“Football is no longer the story of a future America,” Giuliani said. “It’s happening right now.”