FIFA lifts Balogun ban after Trump calls Infantino on red card case

FIFA lifted Folarin Balogun’s one-game ban after Donald Trump said he called Gianni Infantino to ask for a review of the red card that had threatened to sideline the U.S. striker against Belgium in Seattle. Trump said he “didn’t tell him what to do,” but the reversal instantly raised the question of whether access to the president can bend a disciplinary process without an explicit order.

Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute of the United States’ 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1 after a VAR review found he had stepped on Tarik Muharemović’s right ankle. The original punishment would have kept him out of the United States’ Round of 16 match against Belgium on July 6 at 5:00 p.m. Seattle time. FIFA later suspended the ban, allowing Balogun to play after Trump said he had seen the challenge, called the referee’s decision “horrible,” and argued it was simply two players colliding at full speed.

The procedural fallout mattered as much as the red card itself. FIFA said Belgium’s challenge was inadmissible because the Royal Belgian Football Association was not a party to the proceedings and lacked standing to appeal. FIFA also said Neil Eggleston, the American chair of its Appeal Committee, was not involved in the decision.

The backlash was swift. UEFA said FIFA had “crossed a red line” and called the ruling “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.” The Royal Belgian Football Association said it was “astonished” by FIFA’s decision and said it was examining its options. The episode was unprecedented for a sitting U.S. president in a World Cup context, and it deepened scrutiny of Trump’s close relationship with Infantino as soccer’s governing body tried to show that the reversal followed its own rules, not political pressure.

Balogun had already said on July 4 that he respectfully disagreed with the red card and believed a yellow card would have been fairer. By the time he was cleared to face Belgium, the dispute had moved beyond one foul in one match and into a larger test of whether FIFA treats a U.S. star the same way it would treat any other player.