Cancellation of US player’s suspension sparks accusations

On Sunday (5), FIFA announced that its Disciplinary Committee granted a pardon to American striker Folarin Balogun, who had been sent off in a previous phase match against Bosnia-Herzegovina, after stepping on the ankle of an athlete from the European team, Tarik Muharemovic.

“The application of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year,” FIFA announced in a statement. “If Folarin Balogun commits another infraction of a similar nature and severity during the probationary period, the suspension will be revoked and the sanction imposed, without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infraction.”

This way, Balogun, top scorer for the American team at the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, with three goals scored so far, will be able to face the Belgians tonight.

According to American media outlets, such as the Associated Press, Trump had called the FIFA president and his ally, Gianni Infantino, after the game against Bosnia, to ask for the red card to be reviewed.

This Sunday, without confirming that he made the call, Trump thanked FIFA for the decision, saying that the entity that governs world football did “what was right” and reversed “a great injustice”.

According to the EFE agency, United States coach Mauricio Pochettino defended FIFA’s decision and considered that “being fairer than this is impossible”, because “99.9%” of people believe that the red card was “unfair”.

The coach of the Belgian national team, Rudi Garcia, mocked FIFA’s attitude. “I didn’t know that, in FIFA’s offices, July 5th was equivalent to April 1st in Europe,” said Garcia, citing April Fools’ Day.

For its part, the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said in a statement that, “to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at this FIFA World Cup and in future editions of the tournament”, it was “studying all possible options” to try to reverse the decision.

This Monday, the federation sent a letter to FIFA to contest the decision on Balogun.

According to the BBC, former FIFA president Joseph Blatter, replaced by Infantino in 2016 after a corruption scandal at the world federation, stated that “football must never become a stage for political power”, while UEFA, the European football confederation, said in a statement that the automatic suspension for the next match after a player’s expulsion “is not a discretionary option”, but rather “a principle enshrined in the regulations”.

“When the security of the rules is no longer guaranteed by their guardians, the integrity of the game is at risk and the credibility of the competition is undermined,” said UEFA, FIFA’s historic rival.

In X, former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, a critic of the American president, wrote that “even FIFA is involved in the corruption of the Trump crime family”. “If the USA wins the World Cup, there will always be an asterisk. Fairly or not,” he said.