World Cup 世界杯

Newsletter 新闻简报 U.S. Red Card 美国红牌

Croatia Ending 克罗地亚结局

Mexico Hopes 墨西

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https://www.wsj.com/sports/soccer/white-house-fifa-balogun-red-card-world-cup-46276fc8

SPORTS ● SOCCER

Inside the White House Campaign to Overturn a World Cup Red Card

白宫推翻世界杯红牌的运动内幕

The decision by FIFA to rescind U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension followed a rapid response from the Trump administration—and a personal call from the president.

国际足联撤销美国前锋弗拉林·巴洛贡一场禁赛的决定，源于特朗普政府的迅速反应——以及总统本人的一通电话。

By Brian Schwartz, Natalie Andrews and Joshua Robinson

布莱恩·施瓦茨、娜塔莉·安德鲁斯、约书亚·罗宾逊报道

July 5, 2026 9:26 pm ET

In the hours after the U.S. secured its first victory in a World Cup knockout match in more than 20 years last Wednesday, the mood inside the White House was anything but celebratory.

上周三，美国队 20 多年来首次在世界杯淘汰赛中取得胜利，但赛后几个小时，白宫内部的气氛却毫无庆祝之意。

The game, held 2,400 miles away in Santa Clara, Calif., had been marred by a controversial red card for the Americans’ top scorer at this tournament, striker Folarin Balogun—and it meant he would be automatically suspended for the next match.

这场在 2400 英里外加州圣克拉拉举行的比赛，因美国队在本届赛事中的头号射手、前锋弗拉林·巴洛贡吃到一张有争议的红牌而蒙上阴影——这意味着他将自动停赛下一场比赛。

That’s when senior Trump administration officials hatched a plan that would go down as one of the most audacious in the 96-year history of the World Cup.

就在那时，特朗普政府的高级官员策划了一项计划，这将成为世界杯 96 年历史上最大胆的行动之一。

Never mind that soccer’s world governing body fiercely protects its role as the final arbiter of what happens within the white lines of the pitch, or routinely metes out draconian punishment for political interference. The White House was going to take it upon itself to turn a refereeing decision into a matter of state and reverse a call in a soccer match. And in FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the man Trump once called “the king of soccer,” officials knew they could count on a willing ally.

尽管足球世界管理机构极力维护自己作为球场内一切事务最终仲裁者的角色，并经常对政治干预施以严厉惩罚，但白宫仍打算自行将一项裁判判罚升级为国家事务，并推翻一场足球比赛中的决定。而在国际足联主席詹尼·因凡蒂诺（特朗普曾称其为 "足球之王"）身上，官员们知道他们可以依靠一位心甘情愿的盟友。

For Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House’s World Cup task force and son of Rudy Giuliani, the borderline call was an injustice that demanded executive intervention.

对于商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克和白宫世界杯工作组执行主任、鲁迪·朱利安尼之子安德鲁·朱利安尼而言, 这个模糊的判罚是一种不公，需要行政干预。

Balogun fouled Tarik Muharemovic on the play that drew a VAR review. MICHAEL STEELE/GETTY IMAGES

巴洛贡在导致 VAR（视频助理裁判）介入的这次犯规中针对了塔里克·穆哈雷莫维奇。迈克尔·斯蒂尔 / 盖蒂图片社

Starting that night, Lutnick and Giuliani organized several phone calls with Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The suspension, they argued, wasn’t merely undeserved, it threatened to undermine the U.S. team’s chances when the Americans took on Belgium on Monday in Seattle

for a place in the quarterfalls.

从当晚开始，据知情人士透露，卢特尼克和朱利安尼与特朗普组织了多次电话沟通。他们辩称，这次停赛不仅不公平，而且在美国队周一在西雅图对阵比利时、争夺八强席位时，可能削弱球队的获胜机会。

Trump, who was instrumental in bringing the World Cup to the U.S. and views its success as a matter of personal pride, didn’t want the ejection to cast a shadow over the tournament. So the president instructed his team to find a way to lift the suspension, the people said. Lutnick, Giuliani and other administration officials started recruiting high-powered, Trump-aligned lawyers to mount a legal challenge to the suspension. They discussed challenging FIFA’s use of slow-motion replay to decide whether Balogun’s stepping on an opponent’s ankle constituted a red-card offense.

特朗普在将世界杯带到美国的过程中发挥了关键作用，并将赛事的成功视为个人荣誉。知情人士透露，他不希望这次罚下事件给世界杯蒙上阴影，因此指示团队设法撤销这一禁赛处罚。卢特尼克、朱利安尼及其他政府官员开始招募与特朗普结盟的顶尖律师，准备对禁赛决定发起法律挑战。他们讨论了质疑国际足联使用慢动作回放来判定巴洛贡踩踏对手脚踝是否构成红牌犯规的做法。

Administration officials didn’t take long to brief U.S. Soccer officials about their plan, the people said.

知情人士称，政府官员很快便向美国足协通报了他们的计划。

In the 24 hours after the game, as U.S. Soccer publicly bemoaned that it had no recourse to appeal the decision (and no obvious replacement for Balogun on the roster), Trump picked up the phone to the one person he knew had the power to put things right.

比赛结束后的 24 小时内，尽管美国足协公开哀叹对判罚结果无能为力（并且没有明显的替补人选能取代巴洛贡），特朗普还是亲自打电话给他认识的唯一有能力扭转局面的人。

Infantino has ruled soccer’s governing body since 2016 and courted Trump for nearly as long. He has been a regular guest of the Oval Office and popped up alongside Trump at events ranging from a UFC fight in Miami to the Gaza peace summit in Egypt. And when the two men spoke, Trump urged Infantino to review the Balogun call.

因凡蒂诺自 2016 年起执掌国际足联，并在几乎同一时期开始拉拢特朗普。他一直是白宫椭圆形办公室的常客，曾与特朗普一同出现在从迈阿密 UFC 格斗赛到埃及加沙和平峰会等多个场合。两人通话时，特朗普敦促因凡蒂诺重新审视巴洛贡的红牌判罚。

The FIFA president agreed to look into it, but didn’t commit to overturning it, one of the people said.

据其中一位知情人士透露，这位国际足联主席同意调查此事，但未承诺会推翻这一判罚。

Folarin Balogun, left, and Christian Pulisic react after Balogun received a red card in a round-of-32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. MARTIN MEISSNER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

福拉林·巴洛贡 (左) 和克里斯蒂安·普利西奇在巴洛贡对阵波黑的 32 强赛中吃到红牌后的反应。马丁·迈斯纳 / 美联社

By the time Trump and Infantino spoke again days later, however, Infantino was ready to tell him that the suspension was being lifted, some of the people said. FIFA had deployed a little known provision, known as Article 27, which it says allows its Disciplinary Committee to exercise its discretion when reviewing sanctions.

几天后特朗普与因凡蒂诺再次通话时，因凡蒂诺已准备好告知特朗普红牌处罚将被撤销，部分知情人士透露。国际足联援引了一项鲜为人知的条款——第 27 条，该条款允许其纪律委员会在审查处罚时行使自由裁量权。

“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump wrote on social media Sunday afternoon.

"感谢国际足联做出正确决定，纠正了这起重大不公!" 特朗普周日下午在社交媒体上写道。

Not everyone took such a generous view. Soccer fans across the rest of the world cried foul over what they saw as a head of state putting his thumb on the scale—and forever tarnishing the integrity of the World Cup.

并非所有人都持此宽容态度。世界各地的足球迷纷纷抗议，认为这是一国首脑在施加不当影响——永久玷污了世界杯的公正性。

Referee Raphael Claus showed Balogun a red card after the VAR review. KAI RIVER KANZER/ZUMA PRESS

裁判拉斐尔·克劳斯在视频助理裁判审查后向巴洛贡出示红牌。凯·里弗·坎策尔 /ZUMA 新闻社

FIFA declined to comment on the White House’s influence and insisted that its Disciplinary Committee was an independent body. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

国际足联拒绝对白宫的影响力发表评论，并坚称其纪律委员会是独立机构。白宫未回应置评请求。

Belgium’s soccer federation said that it was “astonished” by the reversal and announced that it was reviewing its options. The team’s coach, Rudi Garcia, wondered if the whole affair was an April Fool’s prank played in July. Norway coach Stale Solbakken condemned the episode as a “Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup.”

比利时足协表示对改判结果感到 "震惊"，并宣布正在评估应对方案。比利时队主教练鲁迪·加西亚怀疑整件事是七月上演的愚人节恶作剧。挪威队主帅斯塔勒·索尔巴肯谴责此事是 "糟糕、糟糕、糟糕、糟糕、糟糕的决定，这会损害世界杯。"

“I feel also sorry for the United States,” Solbakken said, “because if they win, that will always hang in the balance for it.”

"我也为美国队感到遗憾," 索尔巴肯表示,“因为即便他们赢了, 这个污点也会永远挥之不去。”

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, right, awarded President Trump with the FIFA Peace Prize during the World Cup draw. CHRIS CARLSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

国际足联主席詹尼·因凡蒂诺（右）在世界杯抽签仪式上向特朗普总统颁发国际足联和平奖。克里斯·卡尔森 / 美联社

Even U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino found himself in an awkward position. He had insisted after Balogun’s ejection, which came in the 64th minute of the 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, that it was “never a red card.” The Americans had been forced to finish the game a man down, which he said was punishment enough. Yet he refused to address whether or not it was appropriate for the President of the United States to involve himself.

就连美国队主教练毛里西奥·波切蒂诺也陷入了尴尬境地。在巴洛贡被罚下后——当时美国队以 2-0 战胜波黑，比赛进行到第 64 分钟——他坚称 "这绝不是一张红牌"。美国队被迫在少一人的情况下完成比赛，他认为这已经是足够的惩罚。然而，他拒绝回应美国总统介入此事是否恰当。

“In the end, it’s not that we’re victims,” Pochettino said in Spanish. “But we’re not the bad guys here.”

"说到底，我们并不是受害者，" 波切蒂诺用西班牙语说道，“但我们也不是这里的坏人。”

Appeared in the July 6, 2026, print edition as ‘A U.S. Push to Overturn a Red Card’.

刊登于 2026 年 7 月 6 日《华尔街日报》印刷版，标题为《美国推翻红牌判罚的幕后推动》。

Brian Schwartz is a White House economic policy reporter at The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Bureau. Brian previously worked at CNBC as a political finance reporter and had a stint as a journalist at Fox Business. At CNBC, he broke dozens of stories on how money intersects with politics, including…

Joshua Robinson is the sports editor of The Wall Street Journal, based in New York. Raised in London and the South of France, Joshua was based in the U.K. and later Paris from 2012 to 2025, where he covered European sports, including soccer, tennis, Formula One, pro cycling, the World Cup, and the…

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