{"id":3495,"date":"2026-07-08T09:15:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3495"},"modified":"2026-07-08T09:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:15:23","slug":"fifa-reportedly-suspended-2-u-s-soccer-officials-before-usmnts-loss-to-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3495","title":{"rendered":"FIFA reportedly suspended 2 U.S. Soccer officials before USMNT’s loss to Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two U.S. Soccer officials were reportedly suspended by FIFA ahead of the USMNT’s game against Belgium. Team manager Sam Zapatka and U.S. Soccer vice president of security Frank Pannell were reportedly\u00a0suspended ahead of that game, per Front Office Sports.<\/p>\n

It’s unclear what led to those suspensions. A spokesperson from U.S. Soccer directed all inquiries from Front Office Sports to FIFA, which declined comment. The U.S. Soccer spokesperson did, however, acknowledge the suspensions.<\/p>\n

The suspensions could be tied to the Folarin Balogun situation, though there’s no indication that’s why Zapatka and Pannell were suspended.<\/p>\n

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The team found itself embroiled in controversy after Balogun was\u00a0given a red card\u00a0during the\u00a0USMNT’s 2-0 win\u00a0over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday. Days later, FIFA reversed his one-game ban, enabling Balogun to play against Belgium.<\/p>\n

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Despite protests from the Belgian football federation \u2014 and\u00a0an appeal\u00a0\u2014 Balogun was\u00a0allowed to take the pitch\u00a0Tuesday. He was in the starting lineup for Mauricio Pochettino’s squad.<\/p>\n

The USMNT went on to\u00a0lose the contest 4-1.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Monday’s contest, FIFA also released a\u00a013-point statement\u00a0from its disciplinary committee announcing punishments for Balogun and U.S. Soccer after Balogun was seen celebrating on the field following the team’s win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since Balogun was given a red card earlier in the match, that was a violation of FIFA rules. Both Balogun and U.S. Soccer were\u00a0fined by the committee.<\/p>\n

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More on the World Cup<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\"The<\/a><\/p>\n
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  • The USMNT’s World Cup run changed everything \u2014 but the ending left a sour taste<\/li>\n
  • World Cup: Mauricio Pochettino rejects Trump, Balogun controversy as excuse after USMNT elimination<\/li>\n
  • World Cup 2026: Ranking the 4 quarterfinal games from best to worst<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    It’s unclear whether Zapatka and Pannell were suspended for an issue related to Balogun returning to the field following his red card vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina or the subsequent fine issued by the FIFA disciplinary committee.<\/p>\n

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    Zapatka and Pannell appear to be the only team officials suspended by FIFA during the 2026 World Cup, per Front Office Sports.<\/p>\n

    Zapatka has been with U.S. Soccer for 11 years, working his way up from a national teams coordinator to a team manager.<\/p>\n

    Pannell reportedly worked for the Secret Service and CIA before a career in private security, per Front Office Sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Two U.S. Soccer officials were reportedly suspended by FIFA ahead of the USMNT’s game against Belgium. Team manager<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3497,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions\/3497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}