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Kevin Lamarque/Imagn Images

The United States men's national soccer team is the beneficiary of a decision that hadn't been made by FIFA in 64 years -- to overturn a red-card suspension in the middle of a World Cup, in this case for striker Folarin Balogun, allowing him to play in the Round of 16 against Belgium.

There's been widespread speculation about whether President Donald Trump played a part in what happened.

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On Monday, the President revealed both his thoughts on the incident and what role he played in what happened afterward.

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Did President Trump speak with FIFA about Folarin Balogun?

President Trump told reporters on Monday that he asked for a "review by FIFA."

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"When they take your best player, or just about, they have some great players, and they say you can't play, that's very unfair. It's one thing to penalize somebody for the game, but how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet? You can't do that. That's unfair. So yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to a man who is highly respected, and by the way, whose level of respect has gone up ten-fold, and he was good before this started. He really pushed it. I'm the one that got them to do it."

Prior to this, a post by President Trump on Truth Social had simply praised the decision by FIFA but not claimed any credit.

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What did President Trump think of the red card?

President Trump was not impressed by the call.

This is how he explained that to reporters on Monday:

"I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports and was a good athlete. I understand sports really well, really well. That wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other."

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He continued: "You can't take your foot and properly place it on somebody else's foot. No, these were two great athletes that got tangled up."

The President then had thoughts on the referee: "This referee, who is a little bit suspect if you check his past... He made a call that nobody could believe, even people on the other side."

After that, President Trump also shared what many were feeling about VAR (video assistant referee) reviews.

"It's very interesting," the President said. "They say they don't show them in slow motion. I never realized that. I never heard of that before. They're not allowed to review in slow motion because it's so different, because you'll take one little quarter of a second and see that a hand is touching a neck, or you'll see something. When you see it in fast motion, it looks like two guys collided, which is really what happened."

At the time President Trump spoke Monday morning, there still may have been an appeal going on from the Belgium Football Association to FIFA, so Balogun's status for Monday night wasn't 100% confirmed. It's not clear whether he'll start even if he is deemed eligible, just given that he wasn't in the plans for most of the week.

But in the end, if Balogun does play, it's a massive break for the U.S., and a large portion of the country will be watching to see if he and his teammates can knock off Belgium and advance to the quarterfinals.

More FIFA World Cup news:

Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who spent his senior year following Jim Boeheim's basketball team around the country. His reporting work has also included extensive high school sports coverage at the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Adventures in sports writing have also led to in-person coverage of the Buffalo Sabres, Cleveland Guardians, U.S. men's national soccer team and a variety of minor league baseball stories. When people ask if he's seen a movie, the answer is usually "No, I was probably watching sports." Even away from sports, his main hobby is running (much slower than any athlete in these pages).

Source: Sporting News