When the American president personally meddles in a football match, not even the secretary of state has a choice but to defend him. Marco Rubio publicly backed Donald Trump's intervention in the World Cup - a move that struck even many fans as too much.

The story goes like this: Trump personally called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to overturn the red card and suspension of American striker Folarin Balogun ahead of the match against Belgium. He claimed the players had merely "accidentally collided at full speed," not that there was a foul. He also called the referee "a bit suspicious" and asked: "How can you punish someone for a match that hasn't even been played yet?"

Rubio went a step further with a rhetorical question: "If you're Belgium, why would you want to play and win a match that people will later say you didn't really win, because their best player wasn't on the pitch?" He even joked that the topic might end up at the NATO summit. Statesmanlike concern over one card - while the real problems of the world wait.

And the punchline of the whole story? The US lost to Belgium 4:1 and were knocked out of the tournament. All the political influence, all the phone calls and pressure - for nothing. The pitch does not recognize protocol, nor presidential calls. In the Balkans we know this all too painfully: the powerful man says how something should end, and reality does as it pleases. Sometimes the biggest punishment for meddling in the game is the game itself.