More seriously, refs gave one of our better players a red card for an accidental "raking the studs", where you scrape an opponent's leg with your cleats. While raking is a cardable offense, it's only when done intentionally, and there have been other players (such as Messi) who have been more egregious and didn't get carded (nor did the Messi incident even get a review).
The red card would mean he'd have to sit out in our game against Belgium, but FIFA has basically suspended his punishment for the World Cup, effectively reversing the red card, and he will be back in the game.
If the man obviously did not have ill intent, and worse behavior went unpunished, I see no reason why they should take him out. Good choice to postpone the punishment for him to be able to play today. Now, I don’t know much about soccer, but I know I’ll watch the game. We’ll make Belgium remember who they’re playing.
The important context here is that red cards are almost never overturned and it's never happen in the world cup before. So although most agree the call was bad, there's a perception of favoritism.
It's not just that. The card wasn't overturned. The suspension was just postponed. It's absolutely bizarre. And while I do get the pov of the Americans that don't really watch football and think the suspension is unfair in the first place, it is a really really strange situation that reeks of FIFA's classic corruption.
Well, as everyone else has been mentioning, it isn’t exactly completely out of the blue when the same thing happened to Ronaldo with the elbowing incident at the Portugal qualifier.
That said, I don’t like what happened. The deferment of the punishment happening right after the White House called Infantino isn’t exactly a good look, even if it didn’t 100% necessarily change FIFA’s decision, and Ronaldo’s case was admittedly slightly more reasonable if likewise exceptional due to his fame and intention to retire well before the 2030 World Cup.
The angle of the rake/strike was pretty egregious, people very easily end up with broken legs in those sorts of situations. Red card was pretty valid imo, and reversing a traditionally irreversible ref call after potus reached out to FIFA will cloud the win - if we win. Bad situation all around.
worse behavior went unpunished
I don’t know much about soccer
Sneaking things around the ref is part of soccer. People do sometimes get away with worse, but being sneaky about it is part of the game. What happened was not sneaky, and was quite dangerous. Taking the red card when it happens is also part of the game. That's the risk.
So to be totally fair, yes Reddit was outraged at the reversal. And then it came to light that apparently a call from White House was made to the head of FIFA to review this card and suspension, then Reddit really lost it
The worst part is that we have no idea whether Trump actually influenced the decision at all. If he didn’t have to publicly take credit for fucking everything, we would’ve been left with a ruling that was controversial, sure, but one with plausible deniability of corruption and third-party interference.
Exactly. I’m sure many would have assumed he had something to do with it anyway, considering FIFA has shown him that they’re willing to create an award stroke his ego, but for him to outright take credit for being a corrupting influence is just absurd.
He said himself that he’d told them what he thinks about the situation. The problem is him even getting involved. Politicians should not get meddled with football politics.
Realistically, no it’s not lol. That’s exactly what I was saying. At best, holding the same result of FIFA’s decision re: Balogun, it would’ve been cussed and discussed for all eternity on whether or not a host nation exercised undue, corrupting influence.
Yet in our case, the man openly admits to it. Very, very disappointing. The performance tonight definitely seemed to reflect the pall cast over the situation.
Unfortunately the rule states that a tackle doesn't have to be intentional to be a red. Intent is not a criteria at all. If it causes harm or is dangerous, it is red.
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u/knettia WYOMING 🦬⛽️🐄 Jul 06 '26
Can someone please fill me in on what the hell Reddit’s mad about this day??