NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump said he personally asked FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review the red card and one-match suspension given to Team USA forward Folarin Balogun, a move that has sparked a major controversy at the FIFA World Cup, according to CNN.FIFA later announced that Balogun would be eligible to play in the Round of 16 clash against Belgium following his suspension, a decision that sparked political debate and raised questions about the integrity of the tournament. “All I did was ask for a review. I didn’t say, ‘You have to do this,'” Trump said from the Oval Office, as quoted by CNN, adding that “he didn’t think it was a foul.” “I didn’t tell him what to do, I can’t tell him what to do,” he said, adding that an independent committee “made the right decision.”Balogun, the tournament’s top American scorer with three goals, received a red card for clumsily stepping on the right ankle of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Tarik Muharemovic in a 2-0 32-run win on Wednesday, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.FIFA announced on Sunday that the suspension had been lifted for the 16th match, an extraordinary move that drew praise from Trump and outrage from the Belgian team. “Thank you to FIFA for doing the right thing and putting an end to a great injustice!” Trump later said in a statement on social media.The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said it was “stunned”, and Belgium coach Rudi Garcia mocked FIFA’s action.“I didn’t know that in the FIFA offices the fifth of July was the first of April in Europe,” Garcia said through a translator in an April Fools’ Day comparison. “The Belgian federation does not defend itself, it does not protect the national team. He defends football in general, he defends its integrity, its ethics. I think it’s the first time in the history of the World Cup that there is this kind of decision.”FIFA said its decision was based on Article 27 of the disciplinary committee’s rules.“The judicial body may decide to suspend in whole or in part the implementation of a disciplinary measure,” says the rule. “While suspending the implementation of the sanction, the judicial body subjects the sanctioned person to a probationary period of one to four years.”