Howard Webb 'really troubled' by Trump-pressured World Cup red card reversal as corruption claims spread

Pro Ref chief Howard Webb says he was left “really troubled” by FIFA’s decision to overturn Folarin Balogun’s red card at the World Cup after political pressure was applied by US president Donald Trump, warning that the episode is giving oxygen to unfounded corruption claims that threaten the game’s integrity.

Balogun received a red card during the tournament before FIFA suspended his ban through a process that, by Webb’s own account, did not appear to exist before the competition began. Trump’s intervention was publicly acknowledged, making the sequence of events unusually transparent — and, in Webb’s view, unusually damaging.

“I was really troubled by it, really,” said Webb, who is entering his fifth season as Chief Refereeing Officer. “We know for sure that a red card was shown. We know there was pressure placed by a politician onto FIFA, because that was admitted. We know that the suspension was taken away for that particular tournament and suspended through a process which seemingly didn’t exist before the tournament started.”

Webb, 55, was careful to separate the on-field decision from the political fallout, stressing that referees can only control what happens during the 90 minutes. His deeper concern is the environment that incidents like this create for those who already view officiating decisions through a conspiratorial lens.

“Far too often now, decisions are viewed as correct or corrupt by people who want to type all over social media,” he said. “They try to draw inferences around decisions that they don’t agree with — born out of no facts, no evidence. But when you get that type of situation, it opens up space for people to think: you see, this sort of thing’s happening all the time behind the scenes. And it’s really not, in my professional experience.”

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters echoed those concerns, having also called this week for the resignation of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Masters lamented that the Balogun affair had overshadowed the football itself.

“We should be looking back on the World Cup, the football that was played, Spain being the best team, and England’s agonising semi-final defeat,” Masters said. “But we’re not — we are talking about other issues, and that’s a huge shame. The Balogun issue stands alone as an isolated incident which is very difficult to comprehend.”