Дэлхийн аваргын тэмцээний үеэр АНУ-ын шигшээ багийн довтлогч Фоларин Балогунд өгсөн улаан хуудсыг ФИФА цуцалсан нь олон улсын хэмжээнд томоохон маргаан дэгдээв.
Босни болон Герцеговины эсрэг тоглолтод улаан хуудас авсан Фоларин Балогуныг Бельгийн эсрэг хийх дараагийн тоглолтод оролцуулахгүй байх шийдвэрийг АНУ-ын Ерөнхийлөгч Дональд Трамп болон Америкийн хөлбөмбөгийн холбооны төлөөлөгчдийн хүчин чармайлтаар өөрчилсөн юм. Тоглолт эхлэхээс 33 цагийн өмнө гаргасан энэхүү шийдвэрийг Бельгийн хөлбөмбөгийн холбоо эрс эсэргүүцэж, шударга бус хэмээн мэдэгдлээ.
Норвегийн шигшээ багийн дасгалжуулагч Стале Сольбаккен энэ үйл явдлыг Дэлхийн аваргын тэмцээний нэр хүндэд сөргөөр нөлөөлөх ноцтой алдаа гэж үзэж байгаагаа илэрхийлсэн юм. Хэдийгээр АНУ-ын дасгалжуулагч Маурисио Почеттино болон багийнхан нь Балогуныг талбайд гарах болсонд баяртай байгаа ч, энэхүү үйл явц нь тус багийг “Америкийн давуу эрх” эдэлж байна гэсэн шүүмжлэлд өртөхөд хүргэв.
Уг шийдвэрээс өмнө Балогун улаан хуудас авсан ч хүндэтгэлтэй хандаж, талбайг орхисон нь олон нийтийн хүндлэлийг хүлээгээд байсан билээ. Гэвч улс төрийн оролцоотойгоор шийдвэр өөрчлөгдсөн нь АНУ-ын шигшээ багийн Дэлхийн аварга дахь амжилтыг эргэлзээтэй болгож, тэднийг тэмцээний “сөрөг тал” болгон хувиргалаа.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
SEATTLE — Even after the red card, after the dejection, amid the suspension, Folarin Balogun was the smiling American face of the World Cup.
He was the breakout star, the shining light, the humble hero of a team that had captivated the United States. He was the striker whose name fans sang and the role model whom parents gushed about. He was the protagonist of an entirely positive tale that was altering the course of American soccer — until FIFA, U.S. Soccer and the Trump administration intervened.
On Sunday, as he rode a bus to training, Balogun became the unwitting face of the World Cup’s biggest controversy.
And his team, a likable bunch that had wowed the world with dynamic football, became a polarizing one.
FIFA’s unprecedented decision to essentially rescind Balogun’s suspension — following a call from U.S. President Donald Trump and extensive work by lawyers and U.S. Soccer officials — has irreversibly changed the story of the American World Cup.
Before Sunday, it was a story about dreams and belief, about a sport on the rise, about unity and connection.
Now, it is a story about alleged favoritism and American arrogance.
Flo Balogun’s red card is being suspended. Here’s why that’s controversial.
Henry Bushnell and Jayne Orenstein
The entire saga has put the U.S. men’s national team at the center of an international storm, rather than simply at the center of American hearts. And it has put a public stain on the USMNT’s World Cup run.
“It’s a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup,” Norway coach Stale Solbakken said when asked about the reversal after his team’s Sunday win over Brazil. “And I feel also sorry for the United States, because if they win, that will hang in the (background). It’s not good for the sport.”
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It is complicated because, in a soccer sense, it is good for the USMNT. Balogun can help them beat Belgium. When Balogun stepped off the team bus Sunday morning at the University of Washington’s Husky Soccer Stadium, with the news rapidly spreading, athletic trainer Kenny Ishii gave him a gleeful hug.
Teammates celebrated his unexpected eligibility. “I’m mostly just happy for him,” winger Christian Pulisic said. “Seeing that smile on his face, he deserves to be playing in this game.”
Head coach Mauricio Pochettino defended the decision on grounds that Balogun and the U.S. had already been punished plenty for an unintentional foul. Most Americans, if not most fans worldwide, could agree with Pulisic’s rhetoric that, in the end, “it just feels right” to have Balogun playing in the game — because the red card felt harsh in the first place.
But the murky process didn’t feel right.
Trump’s involvement, given his cozy relationship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, didn’t feel right.
And the timing, some 33 hours before kickoff, after Belgium spent three days preparing for a U.S. team without Balogun, didn’t feel right.
It left the Belgian football federation “astonished.”
Belgium coach Rudi Garcia likened it to an April Fools’ joke, and said the federation would defend the “integrity” and “ethics” of football. The federation said the move was in “direct contradiction” of the competition regulations and has been granted the right to appeal FIFA’s decision.
Some pundits across the globe decried it, though others welcomed it.
Fans in Seattle will get another chance to cheer on Folarin Balogun after all, after doing so in the U.S.’s Group D win over Australia (Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
And Balogun?
As of Wednesday at 6 p.m. here on the West coast, he was, in the words and emojis of LeBron James, a “Young (Prince).” By 7 p.m., after the debatable red card in the round of 32 against Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was seen by millions as a sympathetic victim of injustice.
A couple of days later, he was lauded again for his class and grace. Although he would miss the biggest game of his life, and one of the biggest games in American men’s soccer history, he’d shaken the referee’s hand. He had tried to set an example for the millions of “people we’re inspiring, little kids, boys and girls who are watching,” he said.
“We have to show them the correct way to handle things, even when you think it’s unjust,” Balogun added.
And to be clear, he did think it was unjust. But “we have to move forward,” he said. “I have to accept it.”
People around and above him, however, hadn’t accepted it.
Officials and lawyers, at U.S. Soccer and beyond, searched for recourse. Never mind the decades of precedent that, as Solbakken said, a red card “means you are suspended for one game.” They pushed in a way that many believe officials from other countries couldn’t or wouldn’t push. They won a decision from FIFA that many believe other countries wouldn’t have won.
And they turned a team that was blameless, a team that was uncontroversial and apolitical, a team saluted at home and commended abroad, into one that now, in the eyes of many, represents the closest thing this tournament has to villains.
They sparked talk of asterisks, of American privilege and exceptionalism, of conflicted emotions.
Many Americans, to be clear, are still fully behind the team, if not overjoyed by Balogun’s unexpected availability. Some don’t mind siding with villains who wear stars and stripes. Some might even revel in all the furious-but-helpless reactions from abroad, the types of incredulous complaints that FIFA has ignored for years.
But that only reinforces the point. Their team, after months of avoiding Trump, has become politicized. Its every action Monday will be contentious. For weeks, it was best known for winning hearts, minds and soccer games. Now, for at least a few days, and potentially for the rest of this World Cup, it is at the center of Balo-gate.
“What is really bad about that situation,” Solbakken said, “is that it will (hang) over the United States now.”
Any celebrations will be colored by it.
“Because if they beat Belgium, they will always have that extra thing about it,” Solbakken continued. “Maybe he scores a goal, maybe plays a good game. And the Belgians will be furious.”
