‘Outrage’: CBS Predicts U.S. ‘Tainted’ With ‘Stigma’ After Red Card Overturned

Curtis Houck
July 6th, 2026 3:16 PM

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Monday’s CBS Mornings went all-in on jabbing the U.S. Men’s National Team hours before its World Cup Round of 16 match against Belgium, declaring the team is now surrounded by “outrage” after FIFA overturned star Folarin Balogun’s controversial July 1 red card, declaring they’re now “tainted” with a “stigma” and an future victories will come with an “asterisk” because they’ve “destroy[ed] the integrity of the competition.”

Add in the fact there was a call last week from President Trump to FIFA boss Gianni Infantino wondering about if a review was possible and the liberal, elite media now have all the excuses they need to root against the United States (though, to be clear, CBS insisted they’re still hoping they win).

Co-host Gayle King was burying the U.S. from the get-go, declaring in two opening teases about “the stunning reversal” having “caus[ed] a lot of outrage” as “President Trump helped overturn” the original “controversial decision.”

Moments later, King promised the show would soon be “talking about the red card reversal because people have got lots of thoughts about that.”

The idea fans (or any American) would be thrilled by this was largely absent from the ten-minute-plus coverage.

Featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers had the setup for correspondent Nicole Valdes’s report about the team and the surprising move, and emphasized there are “a lot of outraged people.”

Valdes replied Trump’s “phone call is certainly sparking big questions” and painted that as the deciding factor (click “expand”):

VALDES: President Trump praised the decision writing, “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Sources tell CBS News Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino directly just one day after the match and asked for a review of the red card. The call was first reported by The New York Times. The pair have gotten close in recent years.

GIANNI INFANTINO [on 12/05/25] [TO TRUMP]: Mr. President, this is your prize. This is your peace prize.

VALDES: Infantino awarded Trump the newly created FIFA Peace Prize in December before the U.S. was set to host hundreds of this year’s matches. 

Duthiers then turned to Roger Bennett of the Men in Blazers podcast: “Roger, good morning, or is it? Because a lot of people are wondering how FIFA was able to do this. There’s this little-known rule...Article 27, that allows it to defer suspension of this type. But...there are always bad calls. There are always things that we are unhappy about that we would like to see reversed, but they don’t get reversed.”

Bennett preceded with a wild, Notable Quotable-laden screed.

He started with the implication the U.S. was cheating with FIFA’s behavior “feel[ing] like something at a [WWE], you know, where home cooking is the best cooking” thanks to its all-encompassing Article 27, and “there was a call, as you report, said, from the White House to ask them to reinstate him.”

“[T]his is not the way football works. You know, if we were playing France and President Macron put in a call to make sure their elite striker was able to play — how would we feel if Saudi Arabia did this? How would we feel,” he added, asserting this incident has “destroy[ed] the integrity of the competition.”

King interjected by comparing it to a rescinded call from an NFL game after the game because “President Trump called Roger Goodell.”

She then implied American victories are now “tainted” with “an asterisk”: “Bad calls and sports are how it goes. So, if the U.S. wins and listen, with our USA, go USA, we all hope the USA wins. But if they win, is there an asterisk? Is it tainted, do you think?”

Bennett affirmed these wild declarations: “[Y]ou’ve absolutely nailed it. And we’ll say the crazy thing that hurts so much...[T]his World Cup has been the World Cup of the People...and there you have this.”

He conceded the Americans “have been doing us proud...without any of this interference,” but now they’ll be remembered as less-than-suspect.

“In the eyes of the world, no matter what happens, every goal, every game they win, maybe tonight and afterwards, will have a stigma, will have an asterisk — by the way — which will last beyond the World Cup for both the team, and this poor player,” he said.

For Balogun, Bennett predicted this will define his life: “When you mention his name in 10 years, no matter how many goals he scores, no matter how many games he plays, the world will only remember him from this moment. Balo-gate.”

Asked by fill-in co-host Natalie Morales if he felt the red card shouldn’t have been dealt, Bennett upped the melodramatic attitude by insisting any sort of action has “destroy[ed] the integrity of the competition” and turned the World Cup into a “courtroom drama.”

They kept this going into the second half. King teased a chat with CBS Sports analyst Nico Cantor about “FIFA’s very controversial red card reversal.”

Speaking to Cantor, Morales framed the red card rescinding as the work of Trump because he “made this phone call to the FIFA president.”

Cantor went right in with the negativity by declaring, “all this celebration now comes amid controversy for the United States.”

He continued to fuel the fire (click “expand”):

CANTOR: [W]e all, in the moment, believed that it shouldn’t have been a sending off. But there really aren’t processes in place for the U.S. to appeal that red card. But FIFA is hanging on to an article in their disciplinary code that, in my opinion, it wasn’t put there for these types of things — 

KING: Yeah.

MORALES: Yeah.

CANTOR: — and it’s kind of just given them a blank slate to kind of just do as they wish.

MORALES: Right.

CANTOR: It’s not shocking because FIFA historically has done as they wish, but — 

KING: The reputation for FIFA doesn’t seem so great.

CANTOR: — yeah, and especially with decisions like these, right? Just — it’s unprecedented to the level that since yellow cards and red cards have been implemented at the World Cup, that’s 1974. This has never happened.

Some quibbling with Duthiers about FIFA vs. UEFA later, Cantor doubled down that allowing Balogun to play “is a very unpopular decision” and now “any national team can say, ‘Hey, if you do this for the US, why don’t you do it for us,’ unfortunately.”

To see the relevant CBS transcript from July 6, click here.

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