Secretary of State Marco Rubio And Chilean Foreign Minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna Before Their Meeting

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.