Mauricio Pochettino said he regrets not being more involved in the decision to overturn Folarin Balogun’s one-game red-card suspension before the Belgium game at this summer’s World Cup.
On Thursday, Pochettino told Andrés Cantor that he was not part of the decision-making process when the US Soccer Federation and Donald Trump lobbied Fifa to review the ruling. Fifa’s disciplinary committee reinstated Balogun for the Belgium match, but Belgium went on to beat the United States 4-1.
Pochettino: the process should have been tighter
On Friday in Orlando, Pochettino said the matter should have been handled by very few people. He said that, as a football person, he understands how important emotional balance can be and believed the controversy changed the energy around the team once the reversal happened.
“Maybe I regret not having been more involved,” Pochettino said of the situation that later generated “all of the negativity afterwards.” He added that he was not involved in overturning the red card and said, “I think nobody understood how it happened.”
Pochettino also said the match itself was not about tactics, strategy, or selection changing the outcome. In his view, the game was already altered once the controversy became public, and the emotional tone around the team shifted before kickoff.
That matters because the US had been having an otherwise positive tournament until the Balogun issue became a major storyline. The red-card reversal drew attention well beyond the field, and Pochettino’s comments suggest he believes the fallout affected the team’s focus against Belgium.
He said the episode has already been discussed internally, and that decisions like that should be kept within a limited sporting structure built on common sense. He added that such calls should be handled strictly from a football perspective, with very few people involved.
The USMNT now moves on quickly, with Peru next on Saturday in Orlando. The broader question around Pochettino’s own future also remains unresolved, making the post-World Cup period another important stretch for the program.
