Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chilean Foreign Minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna Before Their Meeting
Marco Rubio, Secretary of State
Washington, D.C.
Treaty Room
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.
from Collected Department Releases – United States Department of State https://ift.tt/sT8AXjr