00:01I wanted to ask you, can you just get your phone call with Johnny Infantino about the red card?
00:05I know he doesn't fill in the decision.
00:07You're asking me about the whole soccer, isn't it?
00:09So, yeah, I did.
00:11I spoke to Johnny, who's highly respected,
00:14who's produced the most successful World Cup in history by, they say, four times.
00:19This isn't just a success.
00:22I actually said, Johnny, we've got all these games.
00:26Each one is turning out to be a Super Bowl.
00:28And we have all these games.
00:29Because, you know, when you think of it, every game is like a Super Bowl.
00:32Yes, I watched last night.
00:34What a game that was with Mexico and England.
00:37I mean, two countries.
00:39I don't know the players.
00:40Although I think Kane is a great player.
00:42See, I played golf with him, and I like him a lot.
00:44He's a good golfer.
00:46But he's really great.
00:49But I watched, and no reason for me to watch.
00:53And you couldn't take your eyes off the game.
00:56Because I said, Johnny, you know, you have all these games,
00:58because they edit games.
00:59In a country where really we don't, it's not our main sport, to put it mildly.
01:05And this has been four times more successful.
01:07He told me last night the numbers are four times greater.
01:10They think 50 or 60 million people are going to be watching the game tonight.
01:14I mean, you know, these are getting to be Super Bowl numbers.
01:16But you have a game tonight, and they think they're projecting a minimum of 50 million people watching.
01:23A game, we call it soccer.
01:25It's called football, I guess.
01:26But we can't really call it football because it gets a little, there's a little confusion.
01:30So, yeah, you call it soccer.
01:31We're the only ones that do that.
01:33But we are football.
01:34And football is great.
01:35But I've never seen anything like it.
01:37So I saw the play.
01:39And I'm a person that loves sports and was a good athlete.
01:44And I understand sports really well, really well.
01:48And that wasn't a foul.
01:50That wasn't even an infraction.
01:53That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other.
01:56You can't take your foot and properly place it on somebody else's foot when you're going.
02:02No, these were two great athletes that got tangled up.
02:08And this referee who is a little bit suspect if you check his past.
02:17I don't want to say that because I don't like to create controversy.
02:21But very suspect.
02:24If you'd like, I'll provide you with the past.
02:26He made a call that nobody could believe.
02:30You know, even people on the other side, they said, oh, we got lucky.
02:33Wow.
02:35And it's very interesting.
02:36They say they don't show them in slow motion.
02:38And I never realized that.
02:39I'd never heard of that before.
02:40That they're not allowed to review in slow motion because it's so different.
02:44Because you'll take one little quarter of a second and you'll see that a hand is touching a neck or
02:49you'll see something.
02:51Whereas when you see it in fast motion, it will look like two guys collided, which is really what happened.
02:56They got sort of entangled.
02:59He didn't do anything wrong.
03:00And he's our best player or one of our best players.
03:03A very vital player.
03:05And he gave him a red card.
03:05I didn't know what that meant.
03:06I didn't think it meant much.
03:08Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game.
03:12At least in the next game.
03:15I said, boy, that's a big, you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair.
03:20But when they take your best player or just about, they have some great players, but, and they say you
03:26can't play.
03:28That's very unfair.
03:29That's, you know, it's one thing to penalize somebody for the game.
03:33But how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet?
03:36It's very unfair.
03:37You can't do that.
03:38So, yes, I asked for a review by FIFA.
03:43I spoke to a man who's highly respected.
03:46And, by the way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold.
03:50And he was good before this started.
03:52But, you know, he really pushed it in this country.
03:55I'm the one that got them to do it.
03:57It was not Biden.
03:58Biden was asleep.
04:00I got him to do it.
04:01In fact, it was very sad because I got him to do it.
04:04And if the progression was normal, I would have been retired.
04:08You know, the Democrats are saying, man, we should have just let him have us for you.
04:13We would have had him gone.
04:15But I said, you know, the saddest thing is I got the Olympics and I got the World Cup.
04:20I tried to claim 250 years to it, but that didn't work.
04:24They said, that one is what it is.
04:26No, I tried, but it didn't work.
04:28But wait, wait.
04:29So I got him.
04:30I was so proud of it.
04:31And then I realized, you know, I wouldn't be president during that because I would have been out of office
04:36by that time.
04:37I felt badly.
04:38The beautiful thing about what I did is I ran.
04:41I never thought of it.
04:42And then all of a sudden I realized, you know, I just got the Olympics and I totally got that
04:47myself.
04:48And I just got FIFA.
04:49I got that myself.
04:50We gave a little piece to Canada, gave a little piece to Mexico.
04:53I got that myself.
04:55And a lot of people helped, like that man right there, Kevin.
04:59A lot of people.
04:59You know that.
05:00We worked hard on that.
05:01And we got it.
05:02But what we didn't know is how successful it was going to be.
05:06I thought I didn't know.
05:07I said, Johnny, is anyone going to show up?
05:09Because, you know, we're not.
05:11Again, we're not really.
05:12I think I think soccer is doing much better.
05:15But I couldn't imagine if you would have said to any very smart of these like people like this.
05:22That the numbers they're doing now would be happening.
05:27They've never seen anything like it.
05:28Think of it.
05:29Take the most successful Olympics or the most successful FIFA.
05:34And you look at what's happened.
05:36You look at the numbers for this in the United States.
05:39Just compared to FIFA.
05:41And it's numerous times more.
05:45It's not like 10% more, 2% more, 5% more, which is more expected.
05:50It's like four times more successful than anything they've ever done.
05:55In fact, I said to Johnny, let's do it again next time.
06:01And he said, that would be hard.
06:03I said, no, no, you do it again.
06:04But at the same time, you give it to somebody else for the next one.
06:08I don't know.
06:09It's a little crazy idea.
06:10But all I did, all I did, I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul.
06:16And, you know, again, I'm good at this stuff.
06:18I didn't think it was a foul.
06:19I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled.
06:23That was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that, you know, would be different.
06:29And I think it's a terrible, if they wouldn't allow, you know, a top player, maybe the best,
06:37maybe among the best players on the team to play, I think it would have had a big stain.
06:43And I related just that field.
06:45I didn't tell him what to do.
06:46I can't tell him what to do.
06:47But, and I don't believe he made the decision.
06:51I think it was a committee that made the decision.
06:53And they made the right decision because, number one, it wasn't a foul.
06:56And you want to see a game with your best players.
06:58You don't want to say, how would you feel if I took, you know, we take Messi out.
07:05Look, you know, he ran into somebody.
07:07Or we took Ronaldo.
07:10Ronaldo, you bunked into somebody.
07:12We're going to take you out of a game.
07:14He's great.
07:15Well, Harry Kane.
07:16Harry Kane, we're going to take you out of the game, Harry, because you happen to hit somebody a little
07:20bit harder than...
07:22You can't, you can't do that.
07:24If you would have taken him out, I think, I think it would have really stained this incredible champion.
07:30We've got to have our best players.
07:31And they've got, Belgium's got a great team, by the way.
07:34We've got to have our best players.
07:36And they have to have their best.
07:37And if we win or we lose, it's fair.
07:40Otherwise, let's say we lost him and we lose the game.
07:45It would be a terrible thing.
07:47So I think they made a really brilliant decision.
07:49I think the referee's call was horrible.
07:52And nobody talks about that.
07:53They talk about the red card like it's fine.
07:55Nobody talks.
07:56The referee's decision to red card.
07:59I didn't know what the hell a red card was.
08:01When I found out, I said, you've got to be kidding.
08:03This guy just hands up.
08:04Okay, your best player is not going to play next week or in the next game.
08:09I said, wow, that's a lot of power.
08:10That's terrible.
08:11But then I looked at his past and it wasn't so great.
08:17Okay.
08:23I didn't think of it, but I would.
08:25He's a good man.
08:26I will tell you this.
08:31The people in Belgium, if they win the game, they can be very proud.
08:37If they would win the game with a player missing, it would have been a different feeling.
08:42You can't do that.
08:43And I'm very glad.
08:45All I did was ask for a review.
08:46I didn't say you have to do this.
08:48This man is a smart, tough man.
08:50Johnny Infantino.
08:52He's a smart, tough man.
08:54And his stock has gone through the roof because the job he's done has been great.
08:59And I feel we have to have all the best players in the field.
09:03You can't take the best players.
09:04Yeah, please.
09:04The best.
09:16You can't do it.
09:16It's a smart, tough man.
09:16And I'm so sorry.
09:17But I'm just going to look at it.
09:17You can't take the best players.
