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FIFA World Cup; Ali Khamenei's Funeral; Russia's War On Ukraine. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 06, 2026 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:02]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York.

President Trump stirring up a political storm around the World Cup ahead of today's match between the US and Belgium. The questions that are surrounding a red card reversal. An outpouring of grief as mourners bid farewell to Iran's slain supreme leader. We'll be live in the region with the latest.

And Russia launches another massive strike on Kyiv ahead of a NATO summit that's set to discuss the ongoing war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: A stunning reversal by FIFA has shaken the World Cup, mirroring death, I should say, miring Team USA's impending match between Belgium and some pretty big controversy. You see FIFA leadership delayed a one game suspension for Team USA star striker Folarin Balogun. Well, it evokes an obscure rule that will allow him to play in today's match despite the red card that he received during Team USA's last match.

A source is now telling CNN that US President Donald Trump spoke with FIFA president, Gianni Infantino. Well this week -- Infantino. Well, this week he also was asked to review that red card call. Team USA's head coach quick to defend the decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAURICIO POCHETTINO, USMNT HEAD coach: The power of this that sport, no, that is amazing. And, of course, I am listening different coaches, different, you know, federation that talk about oh, the President called this, dah-dah. Everything want to be involved. It's not surprising me.

I came from a culture, Argentina or Europe that football, soccer is more than -- is a religion, more than a religion, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: But Belgium's head coach was far more critical of FIFA's move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDI GARCIA, BELGIUM HEAD COACH (through translation): I didn't realize that at FIFA headquarters July 5th was the equivalent of April 1st in Europe. The Belgian Football Association isn't defending itself nor is it defending the national team, it's defending football in general, the integrity and ethics. As far as I can recall, I think this is the first time in the history of the World Cup that such a decision has been made. That's it.

As for me, I'm the coach. I'm going to focus on my team and on the match regardless of the USA's starting 11.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: It's been decades since we've seen such a reversal and FIFA's decision puts President Trump's influence over the governing body under the microscope as the US is one of the host countries involved. CNN's Julia Benbrook begins our coverage from the White House.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, his role in this stunning decision to allow Folarin Balogun to play in this upcoming game on Monday is now under a microscope. As you mentioned, we are learning from a source familiar speaking with CNN that Trump spoke with FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, earlier in the week and there was a discussion about this controversial red card.

He asked Infantino to review it. And then just today, Trump took to social media and he said this on Truth Social. He said, "Thank you FIFA for doing what is right and reversing a great injustice." Around that same time, soccer's governing body announced it was using an obscure rule to suspend Balogun's automatic one match ban for one year, allowing the striker to play in the Round of 16.

Now, speaking with reporters earlier today, the US coach said that they did believe that this call was fair and that they had suffered enough, been punished enough for playing the last 30 minutes of their last game with just 10 players. US soccer is formally reacting in a statement and I want to pull that up for you now. They said, "We accept the decision of the disciplinary committee and are pleased that Folarin Balogun is eligible to compete tomorrow. Our full attention is focused on the Round of 16 match against Belgium in Seattle, and we look forward to the continued support of our amazing fans."

Now, their opponent is also responding. Let's get to that reaction here. They said, "The decision is in direct contradiction with the provisions of the FIFA World Cup 2026 competition regulations in order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at the FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament. The RBFA is investigating all potential options."

[04:05:23] There will be a lot of scrutiny on this decision, especially as a host city, and then also looking into Trump's relationship, his close relations relationship with the FIFA president. It was just last year that FIFA awarded Trump a Peace Prize, a clear move, what most people think to be a clear move to really be in Trump's favor. That was coming around the time that he had made it clear he was very disappointed that he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

But this Monday game is on and it looks like Balogun will be on the field.

SANDOVAL: Yes. As you just heard, despite that on the pitch -- off the pitch drama, the games still, they must go on. You see Sunday's Round of 16 matches, they ended the World Cup dreams for a host nation and also one of the highest favored teams in the tournament, look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Those fans in London going absolutely wild after England secured its place in the quarterfinals, winning their match 3-2, despite a truly valiant fight from Mexico. England scoring twice in just the first -- in 98 seconds during the first half and held onto its early lead with only 10 men on the field in the final half hour of play following a red card expulsion. CNN's Valeria Leon sharing the reaction of fans in Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mexico's World Cup dream has come to an end after losing to England. Fans here in Mexico City are completely devastated and heartbroken. And that's because the expectation had never been as high as this one before. And Mexico arrived at this match making history, winning four consecutive matches without conceding a single goal, and that's something the national team have never achieved before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm half Mexican, so I want to experience myself. But yes, it was a tough game to watch but overall it was fun game to watch as well.

LEON: Tonight, the dream ended in the fifth and last World Cup match hosted here in Mexico City. Still, if there is something this tournament has shown, it's the passion of Mexican supporters. They feel the streets, stadiums and fan fest, believing this could finally be the year they can see their dream in the quarterfinals. But now that hope has turned into a heartbreak. Valeria Leon, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about that? Extraordinary. Just phenomenal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Norway surely going through now touch 26 for Haaland, keeping up his average. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:12:17]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back. There is a massive turnout in Tehran right now for a third and also longest day of public mourning for Iran's supreme leader. I want to go now to Fred Pleitgen in Tehran.

A reminder to our viewers that, excuse me, CNN does operate in Iran and that's only with the permission of the government, but does contain full control of its editorial.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A huge prayer service at the crack of dawn, the Musalla religious complex in Tehran packed, including high ranking Iranian officials and three of the late supreme leader's sons. A solemn service, but also calls for revenge against the US and Israel.

Why don't we kill the one who killed my imam, this poet says. It would be a shame if we don't kill your killer. Even the elusive head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in the crowd, Ahmad Vahidi is one of the top commanders in charge of Iran's war effort.

The number of people even larger on the second day of the funeral ceremonies for Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by a US-Israeli airstrike along with several family members on February 28th.

The crowds keep swelling here in Tehran as scores of people are coming out braving the mid summer's heat. And the government here wants to make this a show of force and of defiance, saying the Islamic Republic has withstood a massive attack from two of the most powerful militaries in the world.

Some of those in the streets even boasting of an Iranian victory. Yes, it shows that we won, this woman says. From now on into the ears of our children, we will say death to America, death to Israel.

This is by itself revenge, she says. You can see that all together, they should understand that the unity of our people is one type of revenge.

And this woman says, we have not come to say goodbye. We have come to meet our great leader again. We hope Trump and his family will all die, and we promise that he will not have a good night's sleep.

The calls for revenge all around on signs, posters and in the slogans, but many paying their final respects to Iran's law time supreme leader. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

SANDOVAL: And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he's now downplaying reported divisions with President Trump over the conflict in Iran. An Israeli source familiar with the matter says that Mr. Netanyahu is actually set to travel to the US as soon as next Monday to meet with the President. CNN's Oren Liebermann with more.

[04:15:09]

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: This upcoming visit will be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's seventh to the United States to meet President Donald Trump, and it comes at a critical time. Crucially, Netanyahu hasn't been to the US since before the US and Israel launched the joint opening strikes of the Iran war. And we have seen divisions grow between the two world leaders, especially when it comes to how to handle Iran.

President Donald Trump has pushed for negotiations. We saw him sign that memorandum of understanding that gives 60 days for negotiations towards a ceasefire agreement, with even some suggestion that it could be extended beyond that if there is no final deal at the end of that. Meanwhile, Netanyahu has pushed for strikes against Iran as he wants to see this war continue and has been long been skeptical of Iran's intentions behind these negotiations.

We have also seen differences on Lebanon. Trump has effectively drawn a border and a boundary around what Israel is allowed to do when it comes to going after Hezbollah in Lebanon, even as Netanyahu is under domestic pressure to go after Hezbollah and to widen the strikes there. So there again you see a rift between the two.

Nevertheless, in an interview earlier on Sunday on Fox News, Netanyahu downplayed the divisions between the men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: He does what's good for America. I'm the leader of Israel, the one and only Jewish state. I do what's good for Israel. Ninety-nine percent of the time we see eye to eye. But as any -- in any family, any close friendship, there are sometimes differences of opinion and we discuss them openly. I can tell you in a free spirit, and usually we resolve them too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: It's worth pointing out that on Saturday, Trump told Axios that Netanyahu "knows who the boss is." So Trump once again asserting his power over Netanyahu and frankly his ability to make decisions that bind Netanyahu.

An Israeli source said there will be a couple of other issues on the agenda. Iran, of course, is at the top of that list, but so is the security agreement between the US and Israel, the memorandum of understanding that gives Israel $3.8 billion a year from the United States. That's set to expire in 2028, and that has been a major topic for Netanyahu and it will be over the next couple of years here.

Another topic on the agenda, normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. This is something Trump has pushed for, but Saudi has made it clear they won't consider normalizing with Israel unless there's a viable path to a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu has outright rejected. Oren Liebermann, CNN in Jerusalem.

SANDOVAL: All right. We do want to go now to CNN's Paula Hancocks, who's following the latest out of Abu Dhabi, specifically with the former Iranian supreme leader's funeral that continues at this hour. Hey, Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we are seeing at this point is significant crowds in the streets of Tehran. This is expected the biggest day when it comes to the sheer numbers on the streets of this week long procession, this funeral and commemoration of the late supreme leader who was killed by US and Israeli military strikes on the first day of the war, February 28th, which really sparked the war in Iran.

Now, what we can see are large crowds carrying flags, also a number of chants. We've heard chants, according to our team on the ground as well, of death to America, death to Israel. There is anger among this crowd that their leader was assassinated back in February.

Now, we will see the vehicles there. They are carrying the coffins not just of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but also of members of his family who were also killed in that strike. They will be moving, as you can see, very slowly through the crowds. These streets really are packed with those who want to pay tribute to the, the former supreme leader.

Now, what we know is that this procession takes about 10km and it will end in the Azadi Square. So it will be very slow going as you see the sheer number of people on the streets. Now, we have been seeing some banners showing the anger towards the US presidents, some of them saying kill Trump. And certainly that is reflected across many people in this crowd.

It has to be pointed out, though, that this is not the overwhelming feeling in Iran. There will be many who do not support this regime. There are many who we will not see on the streets of Tehran as this funeral procession is underway. Certainly there is not a majority of support for this regime.

[04:20:06]

But what the regime wants to show at this point is a sense of unity. They want to be able to show the world that there is support for this regime. And, of course, the fact that this regime has survived even though at the beginning of the war we heard from the leaders of both Israel and the United States that regime change was to be what the purpose of the war was.

So it's really a chance to show the US, Israel and the rest of the world that this regime has survived. Now, we've just seen the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, posting on social media. And he has said the leadership of the martyr taught everyone that Iran's greatest asset is its people and their unity. So really the use of the word unity there an attempt to show that this is, in fact, what they want to show of Iran.

But as I say, there are many who do not feel that unity. Polo?

SANDOVAL: That's an important point. CNN's Paula Hancocks, thank you so much for walking us through those developments live out of Tehran. That's Paula in Abu Dhabi.

People in the city of Kyiv and also the surrounding regions, they're now trying to clean up a massive bunch of damage after a barrage of Russian drones and also ballistic missiles hit region. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that at least 14 people were killed and dozens were injured, and others remain trapped beneath all this badly damaged multi-story apartment rubble.

Rescue workers, they were able to evacuate some residents. But as you see here, search efforts do continue. Let's get more now from CNN's Clare Sebastian joining me. So what are we hearing, Clare, about these latest barrage of strikes that were launched by Russia?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Polo. Zelenskyy had warned that another big attack was incoming on Sunday night. And here we have it, the second attack on a very large scale targeting mainly the capital Kyiv. In about four days last week on Thursday, we saw the deadliest attack on the capital so far this year. At least 30 people were killed in a massive drone and missile barrage.

This one seems to have been slightly smaller in scale. Obviously they're all terrifying for the Ukrainian people having to live through this. But we're hearing of 68 missiles, 351 drones. The key thing to know there is that while the Ukrainians were able to shoot down 37 missiles, they did not manage to avert any of the ballistic missiles that were fired.

And Zelenskyy saying openly that was because of an insufficient supply of interceptor missiles. So that is going to be a key question going into the NATO summit this week is will allies be able to step up and provide more of those supplies to Ukraine.

And another thing to note though is that this isn't just now on the Russian side that we're seeing these overnight attacks. We're seeing an escalating tit-for-tat, we on both sides. The Russian Ministry of Defense saying that they shot down or averted some 519 Ukrainian drones over multiple different regions.

One of the key targets appears to have been the Leningrad Region, home to Russia's second city of St. Petersburg, where the governor is reporting damage to infrastructure around several key oil ports. More rolling power outages also seen in Crimea, in Russian-occupied Crimea.

So again, tit-for-tat escalation on both sides. We're seeing a more aggressive posture, I think, from Russia in many ways. And over the weekend, Putin and Trump spoke on the phone on July 4th. And a clear attempt, I think from Putin to wrestle the narrative back. You've seen more sympathy from Trump towards the Ukrainian side recently.

So we're seeing more of those attempts from Russia and Putin trying to claim again that this is a -- these are terrorist attacks from Ukraine and that Russia is confidently, in the words of the foreign ministry in Russia advancing on the front line.

So the question is going into the NATO summit is, I think, number one, air defenses for Ukraine. And secondly, will this be the moment, given the successes that we're seeing from Ukraine, will it be the moment that the US decides to further tighten the screws on Russia? Polo?

SANDOVAL: And then, of course, there's also the pressure that Vladimir Putin is in. I mean, it was just last week we heard from some experts whose theory is that this is some of these strikes could be revenge for some of these fuel shortages that have been brought up --brought on, just Crimea, but we really have seen them expand beyond that, right, Clare?

I mean, almost affecting pretty much every region in Russia now?

SEBASTIAN: Yes. Look, I think this is a key part of the picture here as we're now seeing either official unofficial reports of fuel shortages in all of Russia's 83 regions. That's not including Russian- controlled territory in Ukraine, although of course Crimea has been the epicenter of this issue.

We're not yet seeing on a wide scale public outrage directed at Putin that is critical. Russians are upset about this. Certainly we've seen pockets of sort of unrest, but it's not clear at this point that they're directing the blame at the Kremlin. But clearly the Kremlin is worried enough that this could spiral, that Putin has been trying to get out in front of this, saying openly that there are issues, playing it down, but bringing in measures to tackle it, and again calling for more air defenses because it's clear that Russian energy installations are vulnerable for this.

[04:25:10]

So I think, as you say, he is trying to get ahead of this. But the concern in terms of the war in Ukraine is that Russia will see this as a moment where they need to escalate in order to get ahead of the potential for public support to dip, and also for the financial impact to hit really hard because oil is the engine of the Russian economy and therefore its war machine.

SANDOVAL: Absolutely. CNN's Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for bringing us that reporting. Appreciate it.

Vineyards that have existed for decades, they are now under threat in not just Greece, but in Italy as well. Just ahead, how heat is now forcing winemakers to adapt and what it all means for the price of some of your wine coming from Europe.

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SANDOVAL: All right, everybody, welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Let's get back to our top story now.

A stunning reversal by FIFA, it has shaken the World Cup. It's inspiring Team USA's impending match with Belgium in some controversy. You see FIFA leadership delayed a one game suspension for Team USA's star striker, Folarin Balogun.

Well, that -- they invoked an obscure rule that will allow him to play in today's match. And that's despite the red card that he received during Team USA's last match. Well, sources now telling CNN that US President Donald Trump spoke with FIFA President Gianni Infantino; this week, even asked for a review of Balogun's red card.

For more, I do want to bring in now Keir Radnedge. He's a Columnist for World Soccer magazine. He joins me from London. It's so good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.