Trump and Infantino: The venomous relationship between sport and politics
The debacle between Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino proves beyond doubt sport and politics are intertwined, Matt Hardy writes.
“I feel disappointed with too many people. They put politics and manipulation, talk about ethics and integrity [first]. If we talk about the history of this game, I am disappointed in a personal way.” Those were the words of United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino after his team’s exit from the World Cup.
He wasn’t talking about the on-pitch performance after Belgium triumphed 4-1 in Seattle, but the events which saw US President Donald Trump claim he had intervened to get a red card handed out to American striker Folarin Balogun suspended.
The saga has provoked allegations of corruption, something Fifa have been forced to deny in recent days, but for many football fans it is a case of deja vu; where something between the sport and its governance structure just feels… off.
Raises questions
Celebrated sports barrister Nick De Marco KC said on social media that “there is a difference between overturning a red card because the decision maker decides it should not have been given, and suspending it, which means they have decided it should have been given but there must be a reason for suspending it.
“That the person said to chair the Fifa Disciplinary Committee conflates the two, and fails to explain why they decided to suspend, in a statement supposed to somehow justify their decision, only serves to raise more questions.”
It risks venomising this World Cup, which – between Canada, the US and Mexico – has managed to overcome concerns surrounding ticket prices to put on a splendid show; albeit issues regarding the likes of immigration and Iran have continued to be important talking points over the last three weeks.
“We live in a time where the post-World War II rules-based order is beginning to break down – deals, not rules, are nowadays the name of the game,” Simon Chadwick is Professor of AfroEurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School tells Morning Wire.
“One of the prime exponents of this shift is Donald Trump; hence, none of us should have been surprised that he would intervene in the World Cup as he did with the Balogun case. As we see in cases ranging from trade tariffs to military conflicts, rules and laws no longer seem to matter as they once did.”
Trump sets precedent?
It is probably a good thing that the USA were dumped out of the World Cup, since it keeps any coming challenge from the Belgian FA away from the pitch and likely at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
How many CAS judgments in the future, however, will involve a sitting head of state and the leader of a sport’s governing body?
Added Professor Chadwick: “We should expect more of the same in coming years, not just in football but across all sports. In situations such as the award of event hosting rights and the way financial fair play cases are resolved, it is already apparent that deals being struck are trumping rules being applied.”
There is an oft-repeated myth that sport and politics do not cross over but for anyone still in cloud cuckoo land as late as June 2026 has surely now seen the light.
In fact, sport and politics are institutionally intertwined; they need each other for funding, infrastructure and, at this World Cup, influence over red cards.
Trump has contributed to the first red card non-suspension at a World Cup since in 1962, when Brazil’s Garrincha played against Czechoslovakia despite being sent off against Chile.
But he may have opened the floodgates and sport may never quite be the same again. Andy Burnham overturning an inevitable Ashes drubbing next year, anybody?