{"id":3534,"date":"2026-07-13T15:16:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3534"},"modified":"2026-07-13T15:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:16:53","slug":"report-fifa-official-acted-alone-in-clearing-usmnts-folarin-balogun-to-face-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3534","title":{"rendered":"Report: FIFA official acted alone in clearing USMNT’s Folarin Balogun to face Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"

The controversial decision to waive U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension in the\u00a0World Cup\u00a0was made solely by FIFA disciplinary chair Mohammad al-Kamali and without input from any of the 17 other members of his committee,\u00a0The Times of London reported Sunday.<\/p>\n

Balogun, USA’s leading scorer, was issued a red card for a foul in his team’s Round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.\u00a0Per FIFA rules, a red card comes with an automatic one-game suspension for the following game that Balogun was scheduled to serve during USA’s Round of 16 game against Belgium.<\/p>\n

Balogun was allowed to play despite decades of precedence dictating that FIFA would not overturn a red-card suspension during the World Cup. FIFA didn’t rescind the ban, but suspended it “for a probationary period of one (1) year” and issued a fine to Balogun of $40,000.<\/p>\n

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It marked the second known instance of FIFA lifting a World Cup red-card suspension, and the first since\u00a0Brazil’s Garrincha was cleared to play in the 1962 final after being sent off in the semifinal. FIFA issued the ruling a day before the USA-Belgium game in a brief statement that cited\u00a0Article 27 of its disciplinary code. It later issued\u00a0a longer statement that defended the decision\u00a0but offered no further details into the reasoning or process behind how it was reached.<\/p>\n

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More on the World Cup<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\"USWNT<\/a><\/p>\n
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  • USWNT lines up heavyweight Spain friendlies ahead of 2027 World Cup<\/li>\n
  • World Cup power rankings: France, Spain, Argentina and England were the top 4 all along<\/li>\n
  • FIFA boss Gianni Infantino makes case for expansion of World Cup to 64 teams in 2030<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    Trump called FIFA; FIFA rescinded Balogun’s ban<\/h2>\n

    On the day of the USA-Belgium game, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed reports that\u00a0he had called FIFA\u00a0to ask for a review of the red card. FIFA president Gianni Infantino also confirmed that Trump called, but\u00a0claimed the decision was made without Trump’s influence.\u00a0Trump thanked FIFA\u00a0on social media once Balogun’s suspension was rescinded.<\/p>\n

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    The decision sparked outcry from around the soccer world. Europe’s governing body,\u00a0UEFA, expressed “disbelief” in a statement\u00a0calling the decision “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”<\/p>\n

    Belgium issued\u00a0an appeal of the decision that FIFA denied. The Belgians went on to\u00a0a 4-1 win over USA\u00a0with Balogun on the field.<\/p>\n

    Important cases usually involve multiple committee members<\/h2>\n

    Per the Times, several previous FIFA disciplinary cases have been decided by one committee member, usually deputy chairman Jorge Palacio of Colombia. Kamali, who is from the United Arab Emirates, had never been the sole arbiter of a disciplinary committee decision, per the published findings of more than 100 previous cases, according to the Times.<\/p>\n

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    Per Times, more important disciplinary cases are frequently made by a group of three members of the disciplinary committee.<\/p>\n

    FIFA did not respond to a request for comment from the Times regarding Kamali making the decision on his own.\u00a0Kamali declined to answer several questions\u00a0about the Balogun decision when asked by the BBC on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The controversial decision to waive U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension in the\u00a0World Cup\u00a0was made solely by FIFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3535,"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-3534","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\/3534","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=3534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3536,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534\/revisions\/3536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}