This American blamed red cards for ‘ruining the product’ after a US player was sent off in the World Cup and the rest of the world responded as one
Say what you like about the World Cup – please! – but one consequence of its return to the United States for the first time in 32 years has been to introduce the beautiful game to a whole new generation of fans.
Whether they embrace it in quite the same way as they do baseball, basketball, American football and all that remains to be seen (spoiler alert – they won’t).
Some of these new fans don’t just want to watch it, they want to change it, not least this particular dude who blamed red cards for ‘ruining the product’ after United States striker Folarin Balogun was sent off in the second half of his team’s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The incident that led to a red card for Folarin Balogun.
Correct decision? pic.twitter.com/bzgLMxKFgS
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 2, 2026
And it wasn’t just any American but Rhett Reese, a big cheese movie writer/producer whose credits including Deadpool, Zombieland and many others.
You cannot – in a once-every-four-years competition – that is largely a single elimination tournament – make a team play 10 on 11 after a red card, and then remove that team’s offending player for the next game. You just cannot, for ANY reason… let alone a silly, unintentional…
— Rhett Reese (@RhettReese) July 2, 2026
But no matter how long that list of movie credits it didn’t earn him any extra respect in the replies, with the entirety of the rest of the world basically replying as one.
1.
you cannot – in a sport i’ve watched for the very first time this month – enforce any of the rules which have been honed over 150+ years, if they happen to disadvantage the united states national football team… it ruins the product, of which i, a yank, am the sole consumer https://t.co/KBVb53hMBc
— Stan’s Account (@tristandross) July 2, 2026
2.
This reads like someone watching football for the first time ever https://t.co/yGR7JEfvBK
— Zito (@_Zeets) July 2, 2026
3.
Suspend the rules of the world’s most popular sport at its biggest tournament and turn it into a studs up injury festival all because the Yanks had one forward sent off. Pathetic. https://t.co/dFgu7sVLya
— Craig Hunter (@victimsofcomics) July 2, 2026
4.
Dear God someone please make them stop. For their own good, take away their Twitter accounts or something. https://t.co/opetiEQcX3
— Ally Fogg (@AllyFogg) July 2, 2026
5.
Jesus.
A class full of 8 year-olds in the UK have more ball knowledge.
How much longer do we have to listen to this shit?
— BigRedGreybeard (@BigRedGreybeard) July 2, 2026
6.
Yes you can, and it’s been done since 1881 pic.twitter.com/3BDvBHZTZo
— wyrm13 (@wyrm1313) July 2, 2026
7.
The fact that you refer to football as “the product” immediately says everything and invalidates you from any discussion about football and how it’s run.
— Rango (@RangoTheGrump) July 2, 2026