President Donald Trump’s request to FIFA to review Folarin Balogun’s one-match suspension at the World Cup is a bold move, but let’s not kid ourselves—corporate media will salivate over this spectacle to spin their own narrative. CNN will frame this as a “politicization of sports” while failing to recognize that athletes, including Balogun, deserve a fair shake regardless of league or global stature.

Fox News, on the other hand, will likely applaud Trump’s involvement, painting him as a champion of American sports. The hypocrisy is maddening. They want to champion athletes until it doesn’t fit into their manufactured narrative of Trump as the savior of everything American. Both sides will ignore the real issue: Balogun’s talent should stand on its own, untainted by the whims of political maneuvering.

The mainstream media’s cherry-picking of facts only fuels division while distracting us from the actual absurdity of a world where a president feels compelled to influence sports governance. Instead of focusing on the merits of Balogun’s case, we’re caught up in this reality TV show. Will we ever have a genuine discussion about sportsmanship when the airwaves are filled with agenda-pushing drivel? Doubtful.

Let’s keep it real—this isn’t about Balogun. It’s about the theatrics of politics infiltrating every corner of our lives, including the beautiful game. The onus is on us not to play their game and to question the motives behind the coverage.