QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what’s your reaction to FIFA reversing the red card suspension after pressure?
SECRETARY RUBIO: You want to ask me about FIFA?
(In Spanish.)
(In English) It was a bad decision. They shouldn’t even be reviewing these things on slow motion. Right? They should review them live-action. I think it was the right decision to reverse it. And if you’re Belgium, why would you want to play a game and win a match, and then you win this match, and then everyone will argue you didn’t really win it because their best player, leading scorer was not on the pitch during that – during the match?
So it’s kind of unusual because, generally speaking, I mean, if you’re playing, you want to – you want the other side to be at its best so that your victory is not tainted in that way.
So I think it was the right decision. Obviously, there’s a lot of drama around it and so forth. But I think it was the right decision to reverse it, because that decision initially – from everyone I’ve – I’m not an expert on – I don’t claim to be an expert on soccer, but from everyone I heard that knows about this, they all say that that – the guy’s head wasn’t even looking down. It wasn’t like he knew where he was stepping.
So look, maybe they’re trying to get an international incident. I don’t know; maybe we’ll bring it up at NATO tomorrow when we’re there with the Belgians and everybody else. But I just hope the match will go on, everyone will be at full strength, and the winner will be the winner. If it’s Belgium – they have a very good team – they’ll move on and they can say they beat the U.S. at full strength at home. And that could be a big victory, like what you saw the UK do last night on the road in Mexico in a very tough environment. So – okay?
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
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