USA striker was recalled from the wilderness ahead of quarter-final with Belgium after calls from Donald Trump
Belgium have every reason to feel wronged by Fifa’s decision to suspend Folarin Balogun’s one-match ban, and so does all of the football world, bar those of the American persuasion of course.
The USA striker will now be available for Monday’s World Cup last-16 tie after Fifa’s disciplinary committee invoked Article 27 of its disciplinary code to suspend the punishment that had automatically followed his red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The decision came after Donald Trump contacted Fifa three times from Wednesday in an effort to have the sanction lifted, according to people familiar with the situation.
Whether or not those calls influenced the outcome, the timing and nature of Fifa’s decision have created an unnecessary controversy at the biggest tournament in football.
Balogun’s dismissal itself was controversial. His challenge on Tarik Muharemovic looked accidental to many observers and referee Raphael Claus did not initially even award a freekick before VAR advised him to review the incident.
But after watching slow-motion replays, Claus upgraded the offence to serious foul play and showed a straight red card.
Once the disciplinary committee confirmed the automatic one-match suspension two days later, the matter appeared settled. Fifa’s own rules state that straight red cards carry a mandatory suspension. Belgium prepared for a knockout tie believing USA would be without the striker who has scored three goals in three World Cup appearances.
But then Fifa made a roundabout and the suspension disappeared just hours before a World Cup quarter-final match, one of the biggest fixtures in the game.
Belgium have a right to feel aggrieved, and not necessarily because they think Balogun’s absence may or may not have weakened USA. Teams spend days planning for knockout matches, analysing strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and adjusting tactics around the players they expect to face.
Belgium’s preparations were based on official confirmation from Fifa that Balogun would not be available. Less than 24 hours before kick-off, they now have to reevaluate their entire gameplan.
The Royal Belgian Football Association said it was “astonished” by the ruling and confirmed it was exploring “all potential options” to protect what it called the principles of fair play.
Manager Rudi Garcia said it was the joke of the year. “I didn’t know that 5 July was equal to 1 April [April Fools’ Day] at Fifa,” Garcia said. “The federation does not defend itself, it does not defend the national team – it defends football in general. It defends its integrity. It defends its ethics.”
When asked if it was fair to Belgium’s preparations to make such a change on the eve of a knockout match, Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois called it “a question for the football world”.
And it is indeed. This feels like another situation that strikes at the heart of public confidence Gianni Infantino’s Fifa. Just how much more can football take?
Fifa invented a peace prize last year and awarded it to Trump for bringing peace to the world, the same Trump who then ordered airstrikes on Iran, one of the participants of this summer’s tournament.
Fifa also did very little to protect Iran, who had a very painful tournament. They had to travel across the US-Mexico border for all three of their group games, and were afforded less than 24 hours on US soil such that they barely had rest and recovery time after games.
Going back before the World Cup, Infantino’s Fifa also arbitrarily cancelled Cristiano Ronaldo’s three-match suspension that would have ruled him out of Portugal’s first two games.
To worsen the optics, the decision was announced not long after Ronaldo had visited the White House for the first time for a formal dinner also attended by Trump and Infantino.
Indeed, the Portugal captain’s three-match suspension was not simply cancelled. It was reduced to one match, which meant that Ronaldo could conveniently miss Portugal’s last qualifying game and be available for the World Cup.
The US side will certainly have their own partisan arguments to make, but this is not really about the USA team, or Mauricio Pochettino, or even Balogun himself. It is simply about poor, political and, quite frankly, unacceptable conduct from Fifa.
