Andrew Giuliani, who leads the White House’s World Cup taskforce, has come to the defense of Donald Trump’s attempts to persuade Fifa to revoke the suspension of US player Folarin Balogun for the upcoming match against Belgium.
President Trump suggested that Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, responsible for issuing Balogun’s red card during the game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, had a questionable history. This remark appeared to reference a match-fixing inquiry conducted by Brazil’s Senate in 2024, which looked into referee assignments without implicating Claus in any wrongdoing.
During a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, Giuliani asserted, “a little bit suspect, if you check his past”
When a reporter pointed out that Claus had only testified in the match-fixing investigation and was not a target, Giuliani conceded.
“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. Then when you add the fact that the process was misapplied by how VAR was initiated. For contact fouls, you cannot actually utilise the slow motion in the VAR, and they did that. “So when you add those two facts together there, we found it was very, very highly suspicious. And look, the US government, whether it’s at the ballot box or whether it is on the playing field, we want fair play, right?”
The United States faced a 4-1 defeat against Belgium, leading to their exit from the tournament. Fifa has stood by Claus, stating this week.
“He was not accused of crimes – we understand that – but 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, I quote, ‘irregular red cards’. So that’s the facts of it. He was akin to that investigation.”
