FIFA and Pierluigi Collina reply to Donald Trump’s ‘suspicious’ World Cup referee comments
FIFA Referees Committee chief Pierluigi Collina has spoken up to support the World Cup referees after Donald Trump called one referee “suspect” following the controversy over Folarin Balogun’s red card.
Trump played a big role in overturning Balogun’s suspension, but he still criticized the referee Raphael Claus, who gave Balogun a red card for accidentally stepping on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Tarik Muharemovic after a VAR review. Trump said it wasn’t a red card because it looked like a simple accident between two players running at full speed. He also called Claus “very suspect” because of his past, though he didn’t want to cause more controversy.
FIFA and Collina, a well-known former referee, didn’t take kindly to Trump’s comments. Collina praised Claus as a top-level referee with great experience, saying, “Raphael Claus is one of the world’s leading referees and has shown the highest standards of professionalism and honesty. He’s refereeing his second World Cup and is very respected.”
Collina has already been busy this World Cup, helping change rules to stop players from pretending to be injured or wasting time. Some moments, like a missed red card in Argentina’s game, have frustrated fans. There were also some refereeing errors noticed by viewers, like in the Paraguay vs. France match.
In the end, even though Balogun got his suspension lifted, the USA team lost 4-1 to Belgium, ending their World Cup run.