​Andrew Giuliani, who leads the White House World Cup task force, has defended Donald Trump’s lobbying of FIFA to lift the suspension on US forward Folarin Balogun ahead of Monday’s match against Belgium. Trump had claimed that Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, who sent Balogun off in the game with Bosnia and Herzegovina, was “a little bit suspect, if you check his past.” That remark appeared to reference a 2024 Brazilian senate probe into match-fixing that looked at how referees were assigned to games, but it did not level any accusation of wrongdoing against Claus.
Giuliani spoke with reporters at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, DC, saying, “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.” He added that the situation was exacerbated by what he called a misapplication of the VAR process, noting that contact fouls cannot be reviewed using slow-motion in the VAR, and arguing that that flawed usage contributed to the issue. “So when you add those two facts together there, we found [that] it was very, very highly suspicious,” he asserted. He continued, “Look, the US government, whether it’s at the ballot box or whether it’s on the playing field, we want fair play, all right? And so for us, we thought that was very suspicious, to say the least, just like most Americans, I think, just like most people who took an unbiased view of this. And we’re happy that US Soccer was able to file the appeal, and that we think the correct result was achieved.”
When a Brazilian reporter reminded him that Claus had merely given testimony in the match-fixing inquiry and was not a target himself, Giuliani conceded the point but pressed his interpretation. “He was not accused of crimes. We understand that. 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, quote, ‘irregular red cards,’ right? So that’s the facts of it. He was akin to that investigation,” he said.
The United States team ultimately exited the tournament after a 4-1 loss to Belgium, whose victory was accompanied by a lighthearted parody of Trump’s YMCA dance backstage in their dressing room. Critics argued that the president’s intervention had fired up the Belgian squad and dampened much of the global goodwill the US had earned as hosts.
FIFA has defended Claus, stating in a recent statement that, “Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.” The Brazilian Football Confederation added that there is “nothing in his record that calls his integrity into question or supports any suspicion of wrongdoing.”
In a broader briefing on Wednesday, Giuliani also rejected criticism of how the Iranian national team organized its logistics, noting that Iran chose to base themselves in Tijuana, Mexico, rather than the United States, even though their matches were in Los Angeles and Seattle. He defended the decision as a matter of operational practicality, adding, “The flight time—air time—is 27 minutes.”