Jesse Marsch Says Balogun Red-Card Reversal Shows 'Why Everyone Hates America' Before USA-Canada

The World Cup’s strangest ruling is back, and the man reopening it coaches the other team. Jesse Marsch, the American in charge of Canada, told The Guardian that FIFA’s decision to let Folarin Balogun play on at the World Cup was something that would never happen for another country, and he said it days before Canada face the United States in Minnesota, Canadian Soccer Daily reports.

What did Marsch actually say about the Balogun ruling?

That it proved a point about his own country. “What I feel when the Balogun ruling happens is that would never happen in any other country in the world,” Marsch told The Guardian, in comments reported by Sports Illustrated, adding that it is why everyone around the world hates America. His argument was cultural rather than procedural: he said Americans are raised on the idea that they are No. 1 in every aspect of life, and expect different treatment when control slips.

He also said the ruling changed the United States’ tournament. The US had been having a good World Cup, he reflected, and all of that switched in one moment, Sports Illustrated reports. The interview, with The Guardian’s Joe Callaghan, was published on October 4, two days before Tuesday’s friendly, which is not a coincidence of timing anyone in either camp is pretending not to notice.

What was the Balogun decision Marsch is talking about?

A suspension that was suspended. Balogun was shown a straight red card in the United States’ 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, after a VAR review of his challenge on Tarik Muharemovic, Canadian Soccer Daily reports. The automatic one-match ban should have kept him out of the round-of-16 match against Belgium.

Instead, FIFA invoked Article 27 of its disciplinary code to suspend the enforcement of the ban, after US President Donald Trump had personally lobbied FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review it, Canadian Soccer Daily reports. Balogun played. UEFA called the decision incomprehensible and unjustifiable, and Belgium then won 4-1 in Seattle anyway. FIFA’s defence was narrow: Article 27 existed, and it had been used in a World Cup disciplinary case before. The red card itself was never overturned, which is the detail that keeps the story alive: the punishment is still technically hanging over the striker.

Why do Marsch’s words carry more weight than a normal coach’s quote?

Because of who he is in this fixture. Marsch is a Wisconsin native who played for the United States, was in the running for the USMNT job in 2023 and was passed over, then took the Canada job in 2024 and led them to their best ever men’s World Cup performance, Sports Illustrated reports. He is not an outside critic of American football; he is its most successful export, coaching its northern rival, in a week when the USMNT’s own headlines have been about a 17-year-old record scorer.

That history is why the quote travels. A European coach saying this would be a one-day story. Marsch saying it, as an American, 48 hours before he coaches against the United States, turns a friendly into a referendum on a ruling FIFA has never fully explained. It also lands in a window already producing disciplinary rows, including Ireland’s draw with Israel ending in a spitting allegation. By Monday the disciplinary docket had grown again, as Suriname’s Nations League match in Guatemala produced a red card, a racism allegation and a riot-police brawl.

Did Marsch stop at Balogun in the interview?

No. In the same Guardian conversation he turned to Manchester City’s case, saying the club should be relegated over the financial breaches it was found guilty of for the 2009 to 2018 period, and that everyone in the Premier League knew, according to reporting of the interview. City are appealing. Marsch managed Leeds United while those questions hung over the league, and his willingness to say it on the record is a reminder that this interview was not a slip: he came to make news in two countries at once.

Canada arrive in form, too. They beat Chile 1-0 in Toronto and Peru 2-0 in Montreal in this window, Canadian Soccer Daily reports, while the United States have won three straight friendlies under Mauricio Pochettino, who ranks among the best coaches for international football on current results and who said the Balogun noise drained his team before the Belgium loss, Athlon Sports reports.

What happens when the teams meet on Tuesday?

The friendly itself, in Minnesota on Tuesday, October 6, is now the story. Friendlies between these sides rarely need a subplot, but this one has the World Cup’s loudest grievance attached, a coach who belongs to both countries’ stories, and a striker whose suspended ban is still unresolved business in the record books alongside the tournament’s most World Cup goals debates.

Watch for two things: whether Pochettino or US Soccer respond before kickoff, and whether Marsch doubles down after the match. Coaches who choose their moment this deliberately usually have a second quote ready.

The scrutiny of FIFA’s disciplinary process only deepened on Tuesday, when reports based on internal FIFA documents said FIFA knew Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi was ineligible and let him play on at the World Cup, with Nigeria now weighing a compensation claim.

The case Marsch was protesting reached its next chapter on October 14, when FIFA circulated an Article 27 amendment that would bar its panels from suspending automatic red-card bans, with a Council vote set for Thursday on closing the Balogun loophole.