White House’s World Cup head defends Trump lobbying Fifa over red card

<p>Andrew Giuliani claims actions of referee Raphael Claus over US player Folarin Balogun ‘very, very highly suspicious’</p><p>Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House’s World Cup taskforce, has defended Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/05/folarin-balogun-red-card-suspension-lifted-usmnt-belgium-world-cup">lobbying of Fifa</a> to lift the suspension of US player Folarin Balogun for Monday’s game against Belgium.</p><p>The US president claimed that Brazilian referee <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Claus">Raphael Claus</a>, who showed Balogun a red card in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, was “a little bit suspect, if you check his past”. This was apparently a reference to a match-fixing investigation by Brazil’s senate in 2024 that examined how referees were assigned to games but did not accuse Claus of wrongdoing.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/08/trump-fifa-red-card">Continue reading...</a>