US player reinstated for World Cup after Trump calls Fifa | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00President Trump [music] called FIFA
2. 0:01President Gianni Infantino earlier this
3. 0:04week and urged him to reconsider the
4. 0:06suspension of the US's top goal scorer,
5. 0:09Folarin Balogun. That's according to
6. 0:11sources. It follows reports that Balogun
7. 0:13would be available to play for the team
8. 0:16for their round of 16 match against
9. 0:18Belgium on Monday. Balogun received a
10. 0:20red card in the team's match against
11. 0:22Bosnia-Herzegovina last week. President
12. 0:25Trump, a friend of FIFA President Gianni
13. 0:27Infantino, thanked FIFA in a post on
14. 0:30Truth Social. He said, "Thank you to
15. 0:32FIFA for doing what was right and
16. 0:35reversing a great injustice." President
17. 0:37Donald J. Trump. Well, the Royal Belgian
18. 0:40Football Association released a
19. 0:41statement saying it was astonished with
20. 0:43FIFA's decision. Meanwhile, the US Men's
21. 0:46National Team said they accepted the
22. 0:48decision and that they were pleased that
23. 0:50Balogun is eligible to compete on
24. 0:53Monday.
25. 0:54Joining me live to discuss this is
26. 0:56Trevor Hunnicutt. He's White House
27. 0:58correspondent with Reuters. Trevor,
28. 1:00thanks for being with us. So, it's a
29. 1:02highly unusual reversal. Just talk us
30. 1:04through what we know about how this
31. 1:06played out.
32. 1:07Well, so what we know at this point is
33. 1:09that uh President Trump reached out to
34. 1:11Gianni Infantino earlier this week. They
35. 1:14spoke uh and the president uh as we
36. 1:17understand it expressed his uh
37. 1:18displeasure with the the decision to uh
38. 1:21award this red card that would keep uh
39. 1:23this player out of this game. Um and and
40. 1:26now the decision has been made. Uh it's
41. 1:28unclear if there's a connection between
42. 1:30uh that call and the decision, um but it
43. 1:33it is certainly will uh raise uh you
44. 1:35know, concern um
45. 1:37about the appearances. Yeah, and when we
46. 1:39look at the broader context here, the
47. 1:41FIFA president has for some time been
48. 1:43trying to gain Trump's approval. Uh just
49. 1:46remind us of the ways he's tried to do
50. 1:48that and how that's been received by
51. 1:49President Trump.
52. 1:51Well, Karan, I can't tell you over the
53. 1:52last year how many times I've been in
54. 1:54the Oval Office with the president and
55. 1:56all of a sudden I've seen Gianni
56. 1:58Infantino in the room for for one reason
57. 2:00or another. Um typically with a gift for
58. 2:03the president of some kind and a
59. 2:05reminder of how important this
60. 2:07tournament would be to um you know,
61. 2:09putting the United States on uh you
62. 2:11know, a a a
63. 2:13a global footing um by hosting this
64. 2:15tournament. Um and of course uh
65. 2:17Infantino
66. 2:19inaugurated this FIFA uh peace prize um
67. 2:22that he awarded uh Donald Trump in a
68. 2:24ceremony at the the Kennedy Center as
69. 2:26well. So, there's been obviously an
70. 2:28effort to to cultivate Trump um to make
71. 2:31him interested in this tournament and to
72. 2:34see it as part of the the overall
73. 2:36celebrations that are happening around
74. 2:38the 250th anniversary of the Declaration
75. 2:40of Independence that have been really
76. 2:42important for Trump as he as he tries to
77. 2:45send a message, you know, both to the
78. 2:47the country the United States, but also
79. 2:48to the world about uh this country's
80. 2:50standing.
81. 2:51>> And the tournament obviously before it
82. 2:53started, there was some criticism about
83. 2:56the the size of it and the ticket
84. 2:58prices, but since then it's had a very
85. 3:00positive atmosphere, hasn't it? And
86. 3:02people have been talking about this as a
87. 3:03really good World Cup. Is this moment in
88. 3:06danger of tainting that?
89. 3:09>> Well, it is because it introduces uh
90. 3:11politics back into um back into the
91. 3:14arena of sports. Um you know, that is
92. 3:17something that clearly uh President
93. 3:19Trump is is comfortable with, but it's
94. 3:21not something that necessarily all fans
95. 3:23or all countries will want to see as
96. 3:25part of this um this soccer tournament.
97. 3:28Um and so that is is is really the
98. 3:30question here is is does this become a a
99. 3:32politicized sporting event? We already
100. 3:35think that the the president will
101. 3:37probably try to attend one of these
102. 3:39games, maybe the the final or or
103. 3:41something like that. Um but uh clearly
104. 3:45um a controversial move here.
105. 3:47>> And Trevor, just finally, any response
106. 3:48from the White House yet on this? And
107. 3:50and if not, how do you think they're
108. 3:51likely to approach this?
109. 3:54>> No, all we've heard from the White House
110. 3:56is is just uh the president's comments
111. 3:58that this was a a good move to let the
112. 4:01to let this this game go on with with
113. 4:03all of the players that the US intends
114. 4:05to field. Um and um and given that
115. 4:08decision, I don't think we'll hear a
116. 4:10whole lot more from the White House uh
117. 4:13unless they don't like decisions that
118. 4:14are made going forward.
119. 4:15>> Okay. Trevor Hunnicutt, White House
120. 4:17correspondent with Reuters. Thanks for
121. 4:19your time. Good night.