Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Trump asked FIFA president to review red card against USMNT's Balogun

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Rahimi Harris and Grotie. Really, really love listening to guys. You do a phenomenal job. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. And Mojharamovich, both are down. Mohanharamovich seems to be in the worst shape. Ovaligan is still shaking up. And not for the first time today.

Those two have had a real big-time battle all game. Yeah, Ovalon breaks down the back of his leg. It's not intentional. It's just the two of them were tangled up, He's trying to get a foot onto the ground. I actually think he's kind of lucky not to get a yellow card there. Balligan's trying to get position and trying to turn on him. It felt more incidental contact, but I can see that, you know,

you're talking about endangering the safety of an opponent. We'll see what the final decision is. Potential game-changing moment. After review, the number 20 United States Committee, Cyril, Sears Fall. That's going to be a red card. The final decision is Red Card. Wow. That is courtesy of Fox.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotia 1043, The Score, and we got the news yesterday that in one of the most rare occasions that occurs, not since the 1960s, had it happened where FIFA decided to suspend the one-game suspension

that usually ensues after getting a red card of Flo Balligan, the U.S. scorer, who is the star of the team, arguably, in this World Cup, after what we saw was a questionable call. And now we're seeing a series of discussions that have resulted afterward. There was the report that Donald Trump called the FIFA president to see what the latest was regarding the situation.

Infantino is his name. And reportedly it was to ask about the process. Then we find out that there might be more. There were statements that were made by UEFA, for example. That is the European Soccer Federation. The Belgian Football Association arguably angry about this. And then there's also the fact that the red card itself was questionable when it happened. We know that VAR was part of the use to get there slow motion.

That process was questionable. And now it has resulted in this. And I think this is one of those situations, Marshall and Mark, where everybody's right. And unfortunately, it can also all feel wrong. Here's why everybody's not right. If you go back to the VAR, the review, right? because there was nothing called at the time, and then it was sent to VAR. They saw that in slow motion.

You're not supposed to see it in slow motion. Correct. That's part of the problem. That's why everyone is not right. If they had seen it full speed, I don't think they come up with the same conclusion just out of the gate of this is a red card. Yeah, and this is like, I think about this from the perspective of, I get the optics with Trump getting involved, obviously.

The world sees this. Strong arming. Strong arming. And it's not. not a good look for the all-powerful USA. However, this is, right? I'm not wrong to say that the World Cup is probably the most important, the biggest international worldwide sports tournament that exists.

Even Trumping the Olympics? Would I be wrong to say? Worldwide, I think you might be correct because of the representation. It's not a crazy take. So I just wonder what if another team got screwed like that, another country, the other country is taking way more seriously than this country does. that is the sport of soccer. I'm not saying that their leaders necessarily would get involved.

Trump is a different animal, but there would have probably have been wild reaction, heavy-duty reaction from other countries as well. Not that that makes it all okay. I'm just saying let's know what this stage is, what the stakes are for a tournament like the World Cup. Well, the reason why I said everybody's right is that, no, I never thought the red card was the correct call on that. And it's because of what you just said, Marshall, slow-mo. and the process itself was inherently flawed. But it was that at that point, somebody has to accept whatever the result is of the authority.

And at the time, if you recall, we were all pretty devastated because we knew that once you get that red card, the likelihood of it being overturned was incredibly slim to none. Right. This hadn't happened since the 1960s, as we just discussed. And it's not even an overturned necessarily because it's a suspension of the resulting one game suspension, if that makes sense. then that's when we see all this take place. But at some point, you're thinking, well, the authority has to be accepted here. Flo Balligan had accepted the authority.

We saw what happened when it came to the discussion surrounding it. The likelihood of it happening was low. Then we find out Trump made some points as well when it came to reportedly him just asking questions about what happened. We know how FIFA has a reputation of corruption. We know that Trump also carries a reputation where it looked like. like he put his thumb on the scale. And then I think we also even got the set bladder response and his statement today,

which felt very much like Rod Blagojevich talking about the Bear Stadium the other day. So everybody's weighing in on this. But Trump did speak. He was asked about this, and here's what he had to say today. So I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports and was a good athlete. And I understand sports really well, really well.

And that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction. There was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. You can't take your foot and properly place it on somebody else's foot when you're going, no. These were two great athletes that got tangled up. And this referee who is a little bit suspect? If you check his past? I don't want to say that because I don't like that.

because I don't like to create controversy. But very suspect. If you'd like, I'll provide you with the past. He made a call that nobody could believe. You know, even people on the other side, they said, oh, we got lucky. Wow, that's, and it's very interesting. They say they don't show them in slow motion.

And I never realized that. I never heard of that before. That 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 you'll see that a hand, just touching a neck or you see something. Whereas when you see it in fast motion,

it will look like two guys collided, which is really what happened. They got sort of entangled. He didn't do anything wrong, and he's our best player or one of our best players. It's a very vital player. And he gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant.

I didn't think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game, at least in the next game. I said, boy, that's a big, you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair, but when they take your best player or just about, they have some great players, but, and they say you can't play, that's very unfair. That's, you know, 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?

It's very unfair. You can't do that. So, yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to a man who's highly respected, and by the way, who's level. of respect has gone up tenfold. And he was good before this started. But, you know, he really pushed it in this country. I'm the one that got them to do it. So here's the thing. Two wrongs don't make a right, but two rights make an airplane. And Trump is correct about Raphael Klaus, the referee, having a history that had some questionable allegations. A little bit suspect.

He was accused of match-match-match fixing by irregular red cards in Brazil's series. Sarie Ah in 23. And that did come up with this. And he sounds like all of us when he's talking about

watching the game. There's a bit of Americans discover soccer in there by not knowing about what happens with the result of the red card. No, I got that part.

But he didn't make it sound like he took control of the entire process either. No, no. I think he was just letting them know this is how I feel about this. This is unfair.

What are you doing about it? And then it was explained to him. And actually, In response to Trump speaking, that was what just over an hour ago? Yeah, this is developing today. We've got the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, who puts out a statement who wants to let people know, I've seen the public discourse on this, whether that's Trump talking, whether it's all the analysts talking,

whether it's the other countries complaining about the fact that it's been suspended. Here's what he said. The entire federation. Quote, yes, I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup with the president of the United States. and on this matter, I did receive a call from President Donald Trump, just as I received calls from heads of state, government officials, football stakeholders, and business executives from around the world on many different issues. During our conversation, I explained that there was an ongoing legal process

involving FIFA's independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies. That is how FIFA system works and it is a principle I will always uphold. I read the decisions, or excuse me, I read the decisions of the FIFA disciplinary committee when they are issued. Sometimes I am surprised by them. Sometimes I agree with them. And sometimes I disagree. What I always do, however, is respect those decisions and the autonomy of the bodies that make them.

This is why I think that everybody may be right and everybody may be wrong at this. Like, it's just become the situation. Now, we have seen other appeals now because of this. And okay, if you're going to open up that door, then you might as well, Shoot or shoot, other teams should probably start appealing cards because they've seen it have an effect here. But when in doubt, this World Cup, I go to two people. Tieri-on-Reehani and Zlatan Ibrahimovish. So let's listen to what Zlatan had to say about the call in his own words.

What I want to say is I'm happy for the U.S. Obviously, it's a different situation. But like Thiery said, first of all, he should not get a red card. and then they should have come quicker this call, but I'm happy for the U.S. team, because the U.S. team has been amazing, but Balo has been super amazing. And with team, it's an extra force.

I mean, it's, do you want the right decision to be made or do the process itself and getting the ultimately the right decision made, does that bother you if it's not? That's the problem. That's the whole thing. Yeah, two wrongs don't make a right,

Two rights make an airplane. That's how I feel about this. Most people agreed. It was my call. Shouldn't have gotten the red card. But then when Trump gets involved, let's play the feud. It's on.

Let's go. Well, that's it. Survey says. Exactly. Ding, ding, ding, ding. It becomes a massive game of Consider the Source. And for people upset, the president of the United States got involved,

and we understand that that may have affected the outcome. This is the news. We acknowledge it. And at the same time, I understand why people, are upset because it makes you wonder how this is viewed. The U.S. advances out of the knockout stage for the first time in 20 years. And we can't talk about the game coming up tonight in a way that makes sense because of everything surrounding it. But we're pretty clear now that this is

going to be the way it is. It's not like Balligan's going to be like, oh, someone appealed and he's now not going to be able to play, right? That's the feeling I get from the president's statement from FIFA. I mean, I will say this. It is inherently American to exercise your appeals. Yeah, it feels like a baseball appeal when a guy gets suspended. Well, sometimes they cut a day off that. But typically, if a game is played under protest, you almost never, ever, I don't think I've ever seen a game under protest specifically get altered.

I'm sure it probably has happened in the long history of baseball, but I've never seen it happen. And 630, yes, that is a valid question to ask on our text line. 312, 64, 64, 67, 67. He knows sports very well, but doesn't know what a red card mean. Yeah. I mean, we're just hanging out here trying to figure out what's happening. He knows it very well compared to most layman in America's knowledge of soccer. How about that? Like I said, there was a bit of an Americans discover soccer joke in there. But then he also was all of us asking the question of how did this even happen to begin with. I thought he was going to start talking about his golf game. Remember when Biden and him got into the golf?

Oh, my goodness. It does the debate, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was the debate, yes. I think there's also the truth in all of this, which is politics is very much a part of the World Cup. The decisions that are made to award sites, how this gets decided. You know, that is, that is very much a part of how this goes. When the president described his day to day, I believe that. Take the World Cup out of it.

Politics and sports, they bleed into each other almost all the time. Well, right. It's why I said, like, it's the, first of all, it's the biggest, most important tournament internationally. people take it seriously because of the importance and the politics involved in it. Well, either way, I think that at least Flo Balligan gets to play. He has been incredibly graceful in all of this, and he does deserve the right to, A, have advocates, we all do, and then B, get to play. So heads have prevailed.

I'm not going to say cooler. I'm not even going to say that this is ultimately the right call, but it is a decision that has been made. Off with your heads. were made. Decisions were made. Mistakes were also made. Yeah.

Yeah. And now we're here. One thing I did not get you two's opinion on in our upcoming half-time segment. Use twos. Yeah, U-Tos. Now use Cantley is the two people who climb the Empire State Building. Oh, yeah. So I just need to hear you two pop off about it.

I need to hear what's up your crawl. It's very fair. Next.