FIFA Reverses Balogun Red Card After Trump Call to Infantino
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- FIFA suspended Balogun's automatic one-match ban via Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code, placing him on a one-year probationary period and making him eligible to face Belgium Monday at 8 p.m. ET in Seattle.
- President Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the U.S.'s 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina to ask him to review the red card, then celebrated the reversal on social media, calling it 'a great injustice.'
- The Royal Belgian Football Association said it was 'astonished' by the ruling, argued it contradicted Articles 66.4 and 10.5 of FIFA's own disciplinary and World Cup regulations, and announced it was 'investigating all potential options.'
- U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said he was not involved in the lobbying effort and that 'we cannot mix' politics with FIFA decisions, while welcoming the reversal as good for football because unfair calls 'you have the possibility to go and to reverse.'
- FIFA cited multiple precedents for the ruling: Cristiano Ronaldo (November), Argentina's Nicolás Otamendi, and Ecuador's Moisés Caicedo (April) all had red-card bans deferred for World Cup openers; Brazil's Garrincha was allowed to play a 1962 final after political pressure.
- Balogun scored the U.S.'s opening goal in the 45th minute of the Bosnia-Herzegovina win before being sent off in the 64th minute for a challenge on defender Tarik Muharemovic; a U.S. quarterfinal win would be the team's first since 2002.
Why it matters: Belgium is publicly challenging FIFA's authority on the eve of a knockout match, and the cross-coverage consensus is overwhelmingly critical — Belgium's federation, UEFA (per Sky Sports), and England manager Tuchel (per BBC Sport) all argue the call crossed a line between politics and sport, with Pochettino himself declaring that politics should not mix with FIFA decisions.
