All the presidents’ meddling: the Balogun scandal shows how Fifa can break football | Barney Ronay

In this Guardian opinion piece, Barney Ronay argues that the suspension of USA striker Folarin Balogun's red card — reportedly at Donald Trump's urging — has exposed how Fifa under Gianni Infantino is willing to bend sporting rules, turning the World Cup into what he calls scripted entertainment. Trump publicly claimed responsibility for the ban's reversal ("I was the one who got them to do it"), an admission Ronay frames as prima facie attempted sporting corruption, though Fifa denies interference. It matters, the author contends, because it shows football's governing body subordinating the integrity of competition to political convenience.

The USA were then knocked out of their own home World Cup, losing 1-0 in the last 16 to Belgium in Seattle. Ronay dismisses the idea that the Trump row cost the USA the match, arguing they were simply the weaker side. His central target is Infantino, whom he portrays as Trump's chief enabler and whose leadership of Fifa he casts as a case study in unchecked executive power — possibly, he speculates, the beginning of Infantino's own downfall. The piece is heavily satirical, littered with mocking wordplay about Belgium's victory and Trump's conduct.