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U.S. World Cup star's suspension lifted after Trump's call to FIFA president · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: All right, let's turn our attention now to President Trump's
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: involvement in another international affair. That's the World Cup. The
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: US takes on Belgium tonight, with star striker Flow Balagan
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  Speaker 1: on the pitch. Balagan was given a red card in
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  Speaker 1: last week's game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, meaning he would
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  Speaker 1: miss tonight's game. Then Trump intervened and FIFA reversed Ballagan's suspension,
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  Speaker 1: leading to controversy and outrage. For more, we turn out
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  Speaker 1: to our White House correspondent Liz Landers, as well as
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  Speaker 1: Leander Sharlockins, who's been covering the Cup for ESPN and
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  Speaker 1: The Guardian is the author of the book The Long
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  Speaker 1: Game US Men's Soccer and It's savage four decade journey
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  Speaker 1: to the Top or thereabouts. Leander, I'll turn to you first,
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  Speaker 1: because you've covered soccer for a while. For context here,
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  Speaker 1: how unusual is it for a red card suspension to
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  Speaker 1: be handed out during a World Cup match and then
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  Speaker 1: reversed mid tournament? How often does that happen?
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  Speaker 2: The rules are very clear here. You get a red card,
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  Speaker 2: you're suspended for the next game. In fact, the last
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  Speaker 2: time I was on your very show, I was asked,
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  Speaker 2: is there any chance he'll play in the next game,
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  Speaker 2: and I said no, because there wasn't. This has happened
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  Speaker 2: before in the World Cup in nineteen sixty two, a
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  Speaker 2: Brazilian player called Garinsha was kind of spared his automatic suspension.
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  Speaker 2: It hasn't happened since then. There's a little bit of
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  Speaker 2: a recent precedent where Cristiano Ronaldo was supposed to miss
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  Speaker 2: the first two games of this World Cup because of
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  Speaker 2: a suspension, but then he went to the White House
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  Speaker 2: along with his Saudi employer Muhammed bin Salman, and suddenly
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  Speaker 2: that suspension went away and he was ready to go
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  Speaker 2: in the opening games of this World Cup. But this
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  Speaker 2: is not supposed to happen. There is a huge uproar
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  Speaker 2: around the world about this, and rightly so, because what's
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  Speaker 2: happened here is that a wrong has been righted in
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  Speaker 2: the soccer sense, because it shouldn't have been a red card,
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  Speaker 2: and the US played down a man for half an
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  Speaker 2: hour and was going to miss its best striker for
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  Speaker 2: this Belgium game. But in fixing that wrong, a greater
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  Speaker 2: wrong has now been inflicted, and the Belgians, understandably are upset.
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  Speaker 1: So Liz, how did this happen? The President has come
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  Speaker 1: out and said he did make a call, he did intervene.
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  Speaker 1: What do we know about what he said?
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  Speaker 3: President Trump and the administration apparently sprang into action after
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  Speaker 3: this happened last week, and the President talked about this
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  Speaker 3: in a lot of detail today in the Oval Office.
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  Speaker 3: He said that he saw the play during the game
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  Speaker 3: last week and he thought it wasn't a foul and
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  Speaker 3: instead it was just as he said, two great athletes
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  Speaker 3: that got tangled up. He called the player a very
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  Speaker 3: vital player when someone explained to him what the red
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  Speaker 3: card meant, and thought that the red card was very unfair.
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  Speaker 3: So he said in the Oval Office today that he
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  Speaker 3: did call FIFA President Johnny and Fantino. And here's how
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  Speaker 3: he described that phone conversation.
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  Speaker 4: I think it would have had a big stain, and
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  Speaker 4: I related just that feel I didn't tell him what
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  Speaker 4: to do. I can't tell him what to do, but
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  Speaker 4: and I don't believe he made the decision. I think
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  Speaker 4: it was a committee that made the decision, and they
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  Speaker 4: made the right decision.
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  Speaker 3: The President said that he did ask Infantiae to review
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  Speaker 3: the red card and to review what had happened during
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  Speaker 3: the game, and within about an hour and a half
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  Speaker 3: of the President making these comments. Today we got a
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  Speaker 3: statement from the FIFA President and he said in part
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  Speaker 3: in this statement quote during our conversation, I explained that
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  Speaker 3: there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA's independent judicial bodies,
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  Speaker 3: and that the case would be decided in due course
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  Speaker 3: by the competent bodies. That is how FIFA's system works,
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  Speaker 3: and it is a principle that I will always uphold,
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  Speaker 3: so defending the autonomy of the organization there but these
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  Speaker 3: two men have a very close relationship. FIFA took up
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  Speaker 3: offices in the Trump Tower, and Fantino attended President Trump's inauguration,
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  Speaker 3: and of course people may remember last year in December,
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  Speaker 3: during the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center here
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  Speaker 3: in Washington, Johnny and Fantino presented President Trump with the
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  Speaker 3: first ever FIFA Peace Prize.
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  Speaker 1: Can I just follow up with a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: irony in all of this as well? This is the
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  Speaker 1: President intervening on flow Balagan's behalf. Baligan can only play
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  Speaker 1: for Team USA because of birthright citizenship night and mother
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  Speaker 1: was too pregnant to fly back from the US when
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  Speaker 1: she was visiting. That's why he's a US citizen. He
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  Speaker 1: was raised in the UK. Was the President asked about
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  Speaker 1: this something he's worked to undo.
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  Speaker 3: The President has not been asked about this, and he's
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  Speaker 3: not addressed this irony either. He challenged birthright citizenship day
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  Speaker 3: one back in office here with that executive order which
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  Speaker 3: the Supreme Court just ruled last week against him, and
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  Speaker 3: said that the Fourteenth Amendment does give people the right
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  Speaker 3: to citizenship if you are born here in the US,
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  Speaker 3: so basically defending Balligan's status as an American citizen in
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  Speaker 3: addition to everyone else who has birthright citizenship here. The
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  Speaker 3: President expressed his disappointment in that decision, but then went
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  Speaker 3: on last week to say that he still wants to
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  Speaker 3: challenge birthright citizenship. So now we see the President advocating
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  Speaker 3: on behalf of this one player when it benefits team
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  Speaker 3: USA and him.
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  Speaker 1: So leander back to the World Cup of it all?
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  Speaker 1: Now we know Belgium is obviously furious we had. Latest
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  Speaker 1: news seems to suggest that FIFA has rejected their appeal.
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  Speaker 1: What do you expect to happen next? Will there be
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  Speaker 1: more appeals? And what does all this mean for the
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  Speaker 1: US match? Tonight.
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  Speaker 2: Well, so, first of all, Belgium was basically told you
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  Speaker 2: can appeal this decision, even though they were never given
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  Speaker 2: an explanation or were told what the appeal process would
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  Speaker 2: look like. Whereupon they basically lodged a blind appeal and
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  Speaker 2: then FIFA ruled very very quickly and said, no, you
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  Speaker 2: have no standing in this case. Therefore your appeal is denied,
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  Speaker 2: or it wasn't even considered in the first place. This
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  Speaker 2: was already a tough game for the US. They played
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  Speaker 2: Belgium in March, they lost five to two in a
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  Speaker 2: friendly game. They were eliminated by Belgium in the twenty
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  Speaker 2: fourteen World Cup at the same stage in the round
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  Speaker 2: of sixteen. The US had a lot more momentum going
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  Speaker 2: into this game. But it also feels like this kind
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  Speaker 2: of you know, has re energized the Belgians, and it
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  Speaker 2: feels like there's a lot of kind of goodwill that
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  Speaker 2: was building around this US team at this World Cup,
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  Speaker 2: which is the point of hosting a World Cup, ultimately
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  Speaker 2: has kind of just disintegrated, and there's this huge asterisk
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  Speaker 2: behind them if they managed to win this game. So
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  Speaker 2: it's all just got all these extra layers now of
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  Speaker 2: geopolitics and of scandals because the rest of the soccer
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  Speaker 2: world outside of FIFA, you know, the Belgian Federation, the
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  Speaker 2: Bosnian Federation, which was the team that Baligan got the
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  Speaker 2: red card against UEFA, which is the European Confederation. They're
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  Speaker 2: all upset and this isn't going to go away just
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  Speaker 2: after this game.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Leander sharlockins Liz Landers. Thank you to you both.
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• 6:52
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