Jesse Marsch grew up in Wisconsin and still speaks like a man proud of his roots. That did not stop Canada’s American head coach from going after the United States in an interview published this weekend, where he framed the decision the White House secured from FIFA at the 2026 World Cup as the clearest example yet of what the rest of the planet dislikes about his home country.
“What I feel when the Balogun ruling happens is that would never happen in any other country in the world, and this is why everyone around the world hates America,” Marsch told the Guardian.
The ruling arrived on July 5, four days after USMNT striker Folarin Balogun had been sent off in the group-stage win over Bosnia and Herzegovina for stepping on the ankle of Tarik Muharemović. FIFA invoked Article 27 of its disciplinary code to delay the automatic one-match ban for a probationary year, clearing Balogun to face Belgium in the Round of 16.
The call from the White House
Donald Trump has confirmed making the call that triggered the review.
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“I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled,” the president told reporters.
He added that he could not instruct the FIFA president and did not believe Gianni Infantino had made the decision himself.
UEFA refused to let the ruling pass quietly. Europe’s governing body called it “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable” in a statement warning that the “integrity of the game” was at stake. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin skipped the final on July 19 in protest.
The United States lost 4-1 to Belgium in Seattle the day after Balogun was cleared.
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‘Propaganda since we were young’
“We, as Americans, have been inundated with propaganda since we were young. We’re the No 1 country in the world, we deserve everything, No 1 in every aspect of life, this is what we’ve been told,” Marsch told the Guardian.
“So, when things happen and we don’t feel like we’re in control of it … we feel like we deserve to be treated differently because we’re Americans.”
“That is one of the things that infuriates the rest of the world about Americans.”
It is not the first time the Canada coach has used the microphone to go at the White House. In February 2025, after Trump floated absorbing Canada as a 51st state, Marsch told reporters in Los Angeles he was “ashamed of the arrogance and disregard” the United States was showing one of its oldest allies.
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Allianz Field on Tuesday
Canada and the United States meet in a friendly at Allianz Field in St Paul on Tuesday, with kick-off set for 7pm local time.
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