It's been a wild 48 hours for Gianni Infantino.
On Sunday, he woke up and had friends. Today, he wakes up and has none.
The key people of influence inside FIFA will be busy re-positioning themselves as we speak.
Infantino falls on his sword the moment this tournament is done and FIFA carries on as normal. Like nothing ever happened.
Balogun? Oh, that was all Infantino.
Nobody behind the scenes agreed with that. We all told him he was making a big mistake but he wouldn't listen.
A week ago, everything was on track.
Infantino's friendship with Donald Trump apparently had some value. Fingers crossed, it was going to line everybody's pockets even more.
Capturing the barely-tapped US TV audience would be "Johnny's" enduring legacy.
Today, the USA is out of the World Cup — embarrassed and overwhelmed by an average but highly-motivated Belgium side.
And many of the swing voters across the 50 states who could have been swept along by orders of magnitude with each round their flag survived might never watch a game again.
Back to NFL, NBA and MLB.
When you jump into bed with Trump, you buckle up for a wild ride.
You know anything is possible — but you have zero control over how it plays out.
Turns out Infantino ended up being played sooner than he might have hoped. And certainly not in the way he hoped.
The reward for a Peace Prize was a cheap press conference in which the president flexed his ability to make a phone call and alter the course of the world's greatest sporting competition.
Now Infantino has to sit through most of the remaining ten games of this tournament pretending to be interested, knowing his days are numbered.
There will be nothing wrong with the shape of his bank account but today is the day it stops growing. Time to start planning that retirement.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
Referees chief Howard Webb has called Nottingham Forest today to concede that Manchester United's second goal should have been ruled out at Old Trafford.
Ref Graham Salisbury should have chalked off Matheus Cunha’s 55th min strike in #NFFC's 3-2 defeat.
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@8Palfrey8@nickgoff79 Not sure there's a massive difference betwean the top 3 wrs in the draft, McMillan seems to have a few charachter issues, seen him drop into the 20s in a few mocks. I'd be more interested in the cowboys drafting Hampton at 12, there's a massive need there at Rb