What I know about soccer wouldn’t fill a Bic pen. Even when my kids were playing, I considered myself the perfect sideline parent because I could not shout anything but “good kick” or “great goal!” I wouldn’t know that a player was offside unless a giant neon sign told me so.
I don’t know whether the red card given to Folarin Balogun was fair. I have looked at the footage and the photos, and it sure looks like he stepped on his opponent’s turned ankle. A highly trained soccer official said he did it, and who am I to argue?
I guess that what little I know about soccer, Donald Trump knows even less. So, it was totally inappropriate for President Trump to exert his influence on the president of FIFA in getting the ruling overturned. This is the same president of FIFA who awarded Trump the inaugural FIFA Soccer World Peace Prize after he was denied the Nobel Prize he so badly wanted.
It made us look bad. It made Team USA look bad. If the team had a spine, it would have publicly thanked Trump and then benched Balogun. Or Balogun would have benched himself.
But we know that didn’t happen. Until this embarrassing moment, the continuous news coverage of the World Cup had been about the graciousness and spirit of the United States, and stories about ranch dressing. That has shifted to a narrative about winning at all costs. Winning because the head of the international organization that is sponsoring this tournament wants Trump to like him − an advantage that no other soccer club has.
Turns out, it was all for naught. Team USA lost anyway. At least they spared themselves the embarrassment of having an asterisk behind every win.
Cathy Roesener, Anderson Township
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Trump should’ve stayed out of World Cup | Letter
Reporting by Letters to the editor, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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