Andrew Giuliani, who leads the White House’s World Cup taskforce, has justified Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Fifa into overturning the suspension of American player Folarin Balogun ahead of Monday’s match against Belgium.
The US president suggested that Brazilian official Raphael Claus, who sent off Balogun during the game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, was “a little bit suspect, if you check his past.” This remark appeared to allude to a 2024 match-fixing inquiry by Brazil’s senate that scrutinized referee assignments but did not charge Claus with any misconduct.
Speaking to journalists at the Foreign Press Center in Washington DC, Giuliani said: “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.
“And then when you add the fact that the process was misapplied by how the VAR was initiated there. 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 [that] it was very, very highly suspicious.
He continued: “Look, the US government, whether it’s at the ballot box or whether it’s on the playing field, we want fair play, all right? And so for us, we thought that was very suspicious, to say the least, just like most Americans, I think just like most people who took an unbiased view of this. And we’re happy that US Soccer was able to file the appeal, and that we think the correct result was achieved.”
When pressed by a Brazilian journalist who noted that Claus had merely provided testimony to the match-fixing investigation and was not a subject of it, Giuliani conceded: “He was not accused of crimes. We understand that. 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,’ right? So that’s the facts of it. He was akin to that investigation.”
The United States was eliminated from the tournament after a 4-1 defeat to Belgium, whose players celebrated by mocking Trump’s YMCA dance in their locker room. Observers argued that the president’s involvement motivated the Belgian squad and undermined much of the international goodwill the US had built as the host nation.
Fifa has stood by Claus. In a statement issued this week, it said: “Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.” The Brazilian Football Confederation added: “There is nothing in his record that calls his integrity into question or supports any suspicion of wrongdoing.”
At Wednesday’s briefing, Giuliani also dismissed complaints about the logistical arrangements for the Iranian national team, which set up its base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, rather than inside the US, despite playing matches in Los Angeles and Seattle. “The flight time – air time – is 27 minutes from Tijuana to Los Angeles, which made it easy to decide that the day before would be a proper time to allow the team to come in the country, give them plenty of time,” he stated.
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“We also made it clear that they would have to leave that evening. That’s not undue stress when you think about National Football League, the NFL – teams will often take cross-country flights right after the game is finished with.
“And if you look at the US national team, after their trip to Seattle for their second match that they played against Australia, they left right after that match to go back to Orange county, a very similar flight time to what the Iranians did there. And then for the Seattle match with the Iranians, we allowed them to come in two days earlier, as it had been smooth moving in there.”
With only eight matches left in the tournament, Giuliani, the son of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, proclaimed the World Cup a historic and economic triumph, reporting that over 6.5 million supporters have already attended games, nearly doubling the previous record of 3.5 million set by the US in 1994.
He acknowledged that Trump had expressed concerns about steep ticket prices but pointed out that Fifa received more than 500 million ticket applications for 7 million available seats. “So for a supply-demand perspective, it’s just out of whack. There’s just so much demand to come to the United States to watch the World Cup.” Some 4,547 tickets per match were distributed to US military veterans.
Giuliani said the administration simplified entry for millions of legal visitors without sacrificing security. More than 5 million Esta applications were processed in the first half of the fiscal year for the 19 qualifying Esta countries. B-1 and B-2 visa interview waiting periods were cut sharply; in Buenos Aires, wait times fell from 300 days to under two weeks, and in Brazil from more than 600 days to less than a month.
“There was a lot of talk before about, well, the president is not welcoming or whatever the talk was,” he remarked. “What I can tell you is: I think the president is one of the most welcoming hosts I can imagine for this World Cup.”
The tournament has shattered previous football broadcast records in the US, with an estimated 1.3 billion viewers worldwide watching the US team’s opening match against Paraguay, according to Fifa, and a staggering 2.7 billion tuning in for Argentina’s game against Cape Verde. “Unbelievable when you think that over a third of the world actually tuned in to watch that match,” Giuliani noted.
Securing the 11 US host cities demanded an enormous federal effort. The Department of Homeland Security and FBI have confiscated more than 600 drones since the competition began. Giuliani disclosed that there had been 1,487 drone detections inside temporary flight restriction zones, leading to 646 seizures and 13 arrests.
As the competition nears its conclusion, he maintained that the US has demonstrated its ability to stage massive global events, looking ahead with optimism to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2031 Women’s World Cup.
“Soccer is no longer a future American story,” Giuliani declared. “It’s happening right now.”
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