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

Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House’s World Cup taskforce, has defended Donald Trump’s lobbying of Fifa to lift the suspension of US player Folarin Balogun for Monday’s game against Belgium.

The US president claimed that Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, who showed Balogun a red card in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, was “a little bit suspect, if you check his past”. This was apparently a reference to a match-fixing investigation by Brazil’s senate in 2024 that examined how referees were assigned to games but did not accuse Claus of wrongdoing.

Giuliani told reporters at the Foreign Press Center in Washington DC: “We found it highly suspicious that there was a referee who had been investigated for match-fixing previously, and specifically for irregular red cards – issuing irregular red cards. Then when you add the fact that the process was misapplied by how VAR [video assistant referee] was initiated. For contact fouls, you cannot actually utilise the slow motion in the VAR, and they did that.

“So when you add those two facts together there, we found it was very, very highly suspicious. And look, the US government, whether it’s at the ballot box or whether it is on the playing field, we want fair play, right?”

Challenged by a reporter who said Claus had merely given testimony to the match-fixing investigation, and was not a target of it himself, Giuliani admitted: “He was not accused of crimes – we understand that – but what I’m telling you is that he was akin to a match-fixing investigation a few years ago in Brazil where they were giving out, I quote, ‘irregular red cards’. So that’s the facts of it. He was akin to that investigation.”

The US lost 4-1 to Belgium and exited the tournament. Fifa has defended Claus. It said in a statement this week: “Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.”