GENEVA (AP) \u2014 With the integrity of FIFA and the World Cup under attack from European soccer leaders, FIFA President Gianni Infantino acknowledged taking a call from President Donald Trump before U.S. forward Folarin Balogun was cleared to play against Belgium later Monday.<\/p>\n
Balogun was issued a red card in the U.S. match vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina last week, resulting in a suspension for the Belgium contest. Trump called Infantino after the game with Bosnia to plead his case to overturn the call, and FIFA lifted the suspension on Sunday.<\/p>\n
That prompted a day of off-field furor at the World Cup<\/p>\n
The Belgian soccer federation challenged FIFA\u2019s ruling not to enforce a ban on Balogun. The European soccer body UEFA described the decision as an \u201cincomprehensible\u201d breach of soccer\u2019s rule of law. Trump acknowledged calling Infantino and took credit for getting FIFA to review the red card.<\/p>\n
A chaotic and unprecedented day in modern World Cup history then saw a FIFA appeals judge dismiss Belgium\u2019s legal challenge, fewer than eight hours before kickoff in Seattle with a quarterfinals place at stake.<\/p>\n
The Belgian soccer body \u201cis not a party to the proceedings and, as such, has no standing to appeal the decision,\u201d FIFA said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It was unclear if Belgium can, and how soon, pursue an appeal to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is on standby to rule on urgent World Cup cases.<\/p>\n
The Belgian federation said it \u201chas informed the United States Soccer Federation that it contests the eligibility of the player, should the player be listed on the referee\u2019s team sheet. This leaves all further actions open.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fallout from Balogun\u2019s red-card challenge against a Bosnia-Herzegovina defender, in a 2-0 win for the U.S. in the round of 32 last Wednesday, has turned scrutiny on Infantino\u2019s executive control of FIFA and his years-long close ties to Trump.<\/p>\n
Infantino insisted in a social media post that FIFA\u2019s disciplinary committee acted with independence and judged cases such as Balogun\u2019s on \u201capplicable regulations and the specific facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring our conversation,\u201d Infantino said of his call with Trump, \u201cI explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA\u2019s independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
A FIFA disciplinary judge\u2019s ruling Sunday left Balogun free to face Belgium in the round of 16 later instead of serving a mandatory one-game ban.<\/p>\n
The Belgian federation earlier said FIFA had not provided key documents for its appeal, and the soccer body of Norway \u2014 which faces England in the quarterfinals Saturday \u2014 said the lack of legal explanation from FIFA was \u201creason for concern regarding the integrity of the competition.\u201d The Swiss Football Association declared that the \u201ccredibility of the competition depends on clear rules that are applied consistently.\u201d Trump on Monday defended calling Infantino, saying he merely pointed out a \u201chorrible\u201d decision by a referee to issue Balogun a red card for an illegal tackle.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I did was ask for a review. I didn\u2019t think it was a foul,\u201d Trump told reporters at the White House about lobbying Infantino, a close ally, not to impose a one-game ban. Instead, the ban was deferred for one year of probation and flared into an all-time controversy in the World Cup\u2019s 96-year history just hours ahead of the U.S.-Belgium match in Seattle. UEFA earlier criticized FIFA for an \u201cincomprehensible and unjustifiable decision\u201d that it said \u201ccrossed a red line,\u201d and other stinging criticism came globally from former World Cup stars and coaches at the tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup,\u201d Norway coach St\u00e5le Solbakken said Sunday after his team beat Brazil to reach the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n UEFA, whose member federations include Belgium, insisted: \u201cSometimes rules are open to interpretation. In this case not. When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined.\u201d<\/p>\n UEFA has often clashed with Infantino during his decade in FIFA power.<\/p>\n \u201cWe express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,\u201d said UEFA, where Infantino was its CEO-like general secretary from 2009 until being elected to lead FIFA in February 2016.<\/p>\n Infantino\u2019s predecessor Sepp Blatter, who was forced from office in 2015 in fallout from corruption scandals, posted Monday on social media: \u201cRed cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies.\u201d Belgian officials prepared in Seattle through the night into Monday to get a hearing with a FIFA-appointed appeals judge, and their eventual defeat might not be the end.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of the sporting outcome of the match,\u201d the Belgian federation said, \u201d(we are) deeply concerned by the way these events have unfolded and will continue, in the hours, days and months ahead, to pursue every available avenue to uphold the fundamental principles of ethics, sporting fairness and the interests of football as a whole.\u201d Balogun was sent off directly for planting his cleated foot on the ankle of Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic during a 2-0 win for the U.S. in the round of 32.<\/p>\n That kind of challenge has been a routine red card all season in competitions worldwide, and Balogun could have expected a two-game ban for serious foul play under the FIFA disciplinary code.<\/p>\n Still, similar challenges by star players have gone unpunished at this World Cup \u2014 by Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi against Algeria and Morocco\u2019s Achraf Hakimi vs. Brazil. Bernardo Silva of Portugal got just a yellow card against Congo.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a yellow card would have been fair,\u201d Balogun later suggested. This World Cup has been remarkable for FIFA under Infantino seeming to rewrite the norms of disciplinary action even before the tournament began.<\/p>\n A pattern of pardons opened FIFA to suggestions of executive intervention in the statutory independence of its judicial bodies, including the disciplinary committee that formally reprieved Balogun.<\/p>\n Cristiano Ronaldo was cleared to play in Portugal\u2019s opening World Cup game despite getting a red card for serious foul play in a qualifying game against Ireland last November. He struck an opponent with an elbow.<\/p>\n Ronaldo served his mandatory ban in Portugal\u2019s final qualifying game but he was reprieved from an expected two-game ban because FIFA introduced the idea of probation. An imposed three-game ban was less meaningful as two games were deferred during a one-year probationary period.<\/p>\n At the opening game on June 11, South Africa\u2019s Themba Zwane got a red card against Mexico for a similar offense to Ronaldo\u2019s and FIFA imposed a three-game ban with no probation. Zwane did not play again at the World Cup.<\/p>\n Three players sent off in their teams\u2019 qualifying games last year were surprisingly told by FIFA in May they could serve their bans in a future competition instead of at the World Cup, which was the long-standing norm.<\/p>\n Ecuador midfielder Mois\u00e9s Caicedo, Argentina defender Nicol\u00e1s Otamendi and Qatar defender Tarek Salman all had their bans waived for the World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GENEVA (AP) \u2014 With the integrity of FIFA and the World Cup under attack from European soccer leaders, FIFA President Gianni Infantino acknowledged taking a call from President Donald Trump before U.S. forward Folarin Balogun was cleared to play against Belgium later Monday. Balogun was issued a red card in the U.S. match vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina … Continue reading Integrity of World Cup is questioned as Trump, FIFA defend actions surrounding Balogun suspension<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1521523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-08 14:07:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1521523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1521524,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521523\/revisions\/1521524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1521523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1521523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1521523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTrump\u2019s comments<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nUEFA vs. FIFA reignites<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nBelgium\u2019s legal options<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nBalogun\u2019s tackle<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nFIFA\u2019s interventions<\/strong><\/p>\n