Two senior members of the USA’s World Cup staff were absent for the defeat against Belgium after being quietly suspended by FIFA ahead of the game, it has emerged.
In the latest off-field drama surrounding the host nation, team manager Sam Zapatka and security VP Frank Pannell were both banned from being with the team for the last-16 clash.
FIFA quietly published the news on its website but no reason for the suspension was given, though the Daily Mail understands it was unrelated to the Folarin Balogun controversy.
The incident that led to the suspension is believed to have occurred during the previous round against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and ensured both men were unable to fulfil their usual roles in Seattle on Monday night.
A spokesperson for US Soccer directed the Daily Mail’s request for comment to FIFA, which is yet to respond.
The US were dumped out of the World Cup in a 4-1 thrashing by Belgium, but their final days in the competition were marred by a huge controversy surrounding star man Balogun and his suspension.
Mauricio Pochettino was without two key members of his USA staff for the Belgium game
Folarin Balogun’s suspension – eventually overturned – dominated the build-up to the game
The Monaco striker was sent off against Bosnia, leading to an automatic one-game ban for the Belgium game – until the astonishing intervention of Donald Trump.
The president weighed in to lobby FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to overturn the decision, and soon after the governing body revealed it had suspended Balogun’s one-game ban until after the conclusion of the World Cup.
The shock ruling left Belgium furious, but their appeal fell on deaf ears and Balogun was given the green light to play in the last-16 clash – though in the end it made little difference to the result.
In Seattle, Charles De Ketelaere scored twice – either side of a Malik Tillman free-kick – to put the European giants in control, before a horror goalkeeping error from Matt Freese allowed Hans Vanaken to add a third goal.
Donald Trump intervened to ask FIFA president Gianni Infantino to overturn the one-game ban
In the end it didn’t matter as Romelu Lukaku and his team put four past the United States
In stoppage time at the end of the game, Romelu Lukaku added insult to injury with a fourth, sealing the end of the USA’s World Cup adventure.
Fox revealed on Tuesday that its audience for the game was the largest in US soccer history, with nearly 37 million people watching at the peak of the broadcast.
Unfortunately for the US national team, that peak came just as Freese committed his blunder to allow the Belgians to score a third goal at the Seattle Stadium.
These viewership numbers only reflect the audience on Fox and do not include the numbers from Telemundo, which has the rights for Spanish-language broadcasts.
It’s likely that once those are included, the average viewership will top 40million total viewers.
