Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened to escalate the controversy over President Donald Trump's intervention in a U.S, soccer player's suspension by using an upcoming NATO summit to focus on it.

While meeting with Chilean Foreign Minister Francisco Perez Mackenna on Monday, Rubio was asked about Belgium's appeal of FIFA's decision to reverse U.S. player Folarin Balogun's suspension ahead of the World Cup match with Belgium.

"It was a bad decision," Rubio said of the suspension. "I think it was the right decision to reverse it."

"And if you're Belgium, why would you want to play a game and win a match, and then you win this match, and then everyone will argue you didn't really win it because their best player, leading scorer, was not on the pitch during that — during the match?" he continued. "You want the other side to be at its best so that your victory is not tainted in that way."

The U.S. Secretary of State went on to claim that Belgium might be "trying to get an international incident."

"I don't know; maybe we'll bring it up at NATO tomorrow when we're there with the Belgians and everybody else," he warned. "But I just hope the match will go on, everyone will be at full strength, and the winner will be the winner."