Mauricio Pochettino is not blaming Donald Trump. He is blaming himself for staying out of the way.

“You have to have the humility to recognize that sometimes you can be wrong. And I think my mistake was not being present at that moment,” the Argentine told Fútbol de Primera’s Andrés Cantor in an interview at US Soccer’s training base in Fayetteville, Georgia.

The moment in question was the 24 hours before the Round of 16 tie against Belgium on 5 July, when the US president picked up the phone to FIFA.

A red card, a call, a reversal

Folarin Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute of the group-stage match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 July, after stepping on the ankle of Tarik Muharemovic. VAR recommended an on-field review, and the referee issued a straight red for serious foul play. An automatic one-match suspension followed.

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The day before Belgium, Donald Trump telephoned FIFA president Gianni Infantino and asked him to look again. The suspension was lifted hours later.

“All I did was ask for a review. I didn’t say, ‘You have to do this,’” Trump told reporters the day after the Belgium match.

“I didn’t think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled.”

FIFA invoked Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code, a clause that lets the governing body suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure for a probationary period of up to four years. The ban was not erased; it was parked. US Soccer was fined $40,000.

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UEFA’s ‘red line’

The European confederation responded in a register it reserves for governance crises, saying the ruling “crossed a red line.”

“We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,” UEFA said in a statement.

“When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake.”

‘The entire energy changed’

Balogun played almost the full 90 minutes in Seattle. Belgium ran out 4-1 winners, and the United States were out at the Round of 16.

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Pochettino’s argument, three months on, is that the result was slipping before the whistle.

“Things happened, and the truth is that the entire energy changed,” he said. “And that game is very difficult to analyze because it took place in an environment that was not the best environment in which to go and compete at a World Cup.”

He went further on the chain of command around the appeal.

“That loss against Belgium was the consequence of certain things,” he said. “I should have been much more involved, or should have been part of that decision-making process.”

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Pochettino has stayed in the job. On 3 August US Soccer agreed a new contract that keeps him in charge of the men’s team through the 2030 World Cup.

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