Gunter Gebauer on Trump at the World Cup: “This president is a cheat” – Culture

On Tuesday morning at two o’clock German local time, the team from the host USA will play against Belgium at the World Cup for a place in the quarter-finals. Striker Folarin Balogun is expected to be in the starting line-up – although he received a red card in the last game. This is always followed by at least one game suspension. Unless the president of the home country puts in a good word with the FIFA president. This is what has now presumably happened, FIFA put Balogun’s ban on probation after a call from Donald Trump to Gianni Infantino – and the football world is finally in danger of losing faith in this tournament. The philosopher and sports sociologist Gunter Gebauer knows why this form of arbitrariness is particularly painful: football was one of the last spheres where the truth really counted.