Trump Creates Chaos at the World Cup: Is West Indies Cricket Turning a Corner?

What will probably be remembered most about the 2026 Football World Cup is Trump’s intervention to get FIFA to suspend or withdraw a red card given to one of the US’s key strikers after committing a foul against the Bosnia Herzegovina team. Trump, as was reported and he admitted that he had called on FIFA’ President to

review the Red Card, meaning obviously to withdraw the card. It is clear that he didn’t know what was a red card and why it was given, but in true Trumpian style he bragged about his love for football and sports. After all he was a great athlete. What happened generated a lot of criticism world wide since it was the position of FIFA to keep politics out of sports. What was the purpose of that special peace prize that was given to Trump by FIFA? Interestingly it was called the ‘FIFA PEACE PRIZE- FOOTBALL UNITES THE WORLD’.

In fact, it has turned most of the rest of the world against Trump and the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino. Many are calling for the FIFA President’s removal.

Among those doing so is Trinidad’s Jack Warner. Remember his name! He plans to lead a campaign against his re-election and referred to the corruption in FIFA. The whole issue generated serious political commentary but also comic relief. “The Shovel- an Australian Satire news site’, its caption on the issue read “USA Through to the final Eight after FIFA agrees to overturn loss to Belgium”. The paper stated, “FIFA said that despite the 4-1 score line, Belgium had not in fact won and that the game has been “retrospectively recalibrated”. Some news sites quoted Trump on this matter but even recognising the nonsense that comes out of his mouth I am reluctant to quote some of them and in fact some of them might even be fake News.

Why is the World allowing Trump to get away with such infamy? Even more, why is the US allowing him to get away with so much? The US critics generally, and the Democratic Party in particular, are setting their stakes on controlling Congress in the up-coming mid-terms elections, hoping then to cut his power base. They spend a lot of time analysing Trump’s every move as if he is a normal president. In fact, his only guiding principles are to allow himself and family to get rich, to stamp his image on the US and the rest of the world. True enough some of the US road blocks have at least been able to restrict some of his infractions and violations, but nevertheless he continues on that maddening path. The Supreme Court upheld the citizens at birth issue re the Fourteenth Amendment. Interestingly the US footballer Folarin Balogun is a birthright citizen! Trump was made to remove his name from the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. But the guy will not stop. Recently at a Nato Summit in-between periods of sleep, he raised again the issue of the US ownership of Greenland. Interestingly, in all of this he did more harm than good to the US Football team, for it turned most of the world against the US and backed Belgium strongly. After their victory the Belgium team did the Trump dance amidst much laughter.

IS WEST INDIES CRICKET TURNING A CORNER

A corner for the better! The ODI team plays its first match against New Zealand on Saturday and, despite my hope, I know that too often our ‘boys’ flatter to deceive. So, we have to keep our fingers crossed! What impressed me most about the two tests against Sri Lanka was a sense of discipline that appeared out of the blue. Sri Lanka hoped in the final test that they would have chased the runs needed but the guys composed themselves and played for a draw. Their 109 without loss was made in 40 overs while Sri Lanka in their second innings declared at 251 for 9 from 49 overs.

Two centuries from that second match and a partnership. I have always stated that one weakness of our team was our inability to have good partnerships; 401 in the first test between Jangoo (233) and Chase (194) and 242 in the second test between Hope (112) and Greaves (180). True enough the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium is batsman friendly but when last have our batsmen been performing in this way. We have been critical of them in the past, so lets big them up and hope they continue in this vein. We must not forget our bowlers, with Roach in the series reaching 300 wickets. We must stand solidly behind the team and hope that their performance against Sri Lanka will show them that they can do it.

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian