World Cup Day 26: Scandal

These things can all be true (and are, in my estimation):

Folarin Balogun's red card was an extremely harsh adjudgement of a relatively normal challenge and should have never been given, particularly because referee Raphael Claus used slow-motion and freeze-frame incorrectly (or, maybe better, outside of usual norms) while reviewing the call.
Balogun's reinstatement by FIFA makes the United States better, something that fans of the teams should naturally be excited about ahead of the clash with Belgium and the opportunity to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup for only the second time in the modern era.
FIFA's decision to suspend Balogun's ban, likely a result of pressure by Donald Trump and the government of the United States, a host country, crosses a bright white line for in-tournament manipulation of the rules and taints everything the United States does for the rests of the competition.
Almost to a person, opinions on FIFA's decision and the political elements involved are compromised by either a) rooting interest b) politics, or c) a mixture of those things. "A" includes non-Americans (mostly Europeans) who hardly need an excuse to denigrate anything American that brushes up against the sport of soccer (including the word "soccer").

I'll cut to the chase and just blurt out that all of this is making it difficult to know how to thread the needle of my feelings about tonight's game. As a fan of the USMNT who also despises FIFA and the current presidential administration and sees the influence of latter upon the former as unconscionable, there's a war happening in my head.

Chalking the whole episode up to standard FIFA corruption and therefore unremarkable as a example of the genre feels like a dodge of the ethical implications. Letting ourselves off the hook of facing up to what it means that our corrupt president acted corruptly in the interest of our soccer team might be the simplest thing to do, but it's also the most poisonous.

The social media lawyers are all over this, chopping up FIFA's rules into little pieces so as to either justify the decision, explain how its not all that abnormal, or, as is the case for the Belgian FA, decry it as counter to the written laws.

There's a special place in my disdain for all of the anti-Trump social accounts who simply cannot ascribe any righteousness to the crusade to overturn the red card decision since Trump took it up and so are giving us their ill-informed takes on the in-game decision itself. I know I shouldn't be triggered, but I am.

At the end, none of that matters to me. The factual argument for whys or why nots of suspending Balogun's ban holds no power to affect my thinking because nothing about sports is really about the rules. The rules serves as a framework, like, say, the governing documents of a nation, upon which a social construct rests. They support the bigger effort of people to get along and share space, in life or in sports, in ways that won't devolve into outright chaos. If (or when, if you're a real cold-blooded cynic) people intentionally break the spell and decide the rules are either immaterial or malleable, the game is—as they say—gone.

I didn't need the confirmation inherent in his comments about Monday's decision to know that Maurcio Pochettino will put Balogun on the field tonight. I could parse the coach's words and take issue with his seeming disinterest in "doing the right thing", but I'm under no delusions about who Pochettino is or whatever level of activism I should expect from a coach—much less one who has made a career working for clubs backed by people with problematic backgrounds.

Balogun will play. If the Americans win, that win will be forever tainted by the scandal. Gianni Infantino can intone about FIFA Disciplinary Committee independence and we can proffer the notion that this story will get lost in the mists of time if/when the USMNT is knocked out in the next round. The former no longer matters because the notoriously corrupt president attached himself to the story (and we know for certain a call was made) and the latter because even if the rest of the world moves on (and I somehow doubt that will happen quickly), WE will know.

Us. The USMNT faithful who worked so hard to find a space in which to support this team and be proud of its success under a multi-cultural immigrant and birth right citizenship banner while Trump and the administration try to glom onto the glory amidst its campaign to terrorize immigrants and end birth right citizenship. We'll know. I hate that for us.