United States striker Folarin Balogun has revealed that he anticipated Donald Trump’s involvement in overturning his World Cup suspension would spark significant controversy, describing the ensuing attention as unavoidable outside noise. The Monaco forward was sent off in the round-of-32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, but FIFA’s disciplinary committee suspended the one-match ban for a year, allowing him to play in the United States’ 4-1 loss to Belgium in the last-16.
Balogun’s Reaction to the Controversy
Speaking to CBS, Balogun said: “My initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team, but when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy, and I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves, because it’s something that is so unique. But the closer we got to the game I tried to just focus as best as I could, but it was difficult. A lot of outside noise, and that’s hard to avoid.”
The Arsenal academy product maintains that the red card for a tackle on Tarik Muharemovic was unjustified. “I was in shock. It wasn’t even a tackle. I was totally in shock, I think you could see my reaction, but I just had to accept the decision and just try to be there for my team. When something’s not intentional it should never be a red card, so it was just an unfortunate situation, and I think it put a lot more pressure on us than we needed,” he added.
FairSquare’s IOC Complaint
On Tuesday, human rights group FairSquare submitted a complaint to the International Olympic Committee, alleging that FIFA President Gianni Infantino breached rules on political neutrality through his dealings with Trump, who admitted to personally intervening on behalf of Balogun and the US co-hosts. FairSquare’s complaint cites five clear breaches of the IOC’s political neutrality rules and prima facie evidence of two further serious breaches, including the handling of the Balogun case.
According to The Times, disciplinary committee chair Mohammad Al Kamali made the key decision to suspend the ban alone, having never served as the sole arbiter in any published previous disciplinary cases. FIFA has offered no explanation for the suspension.
Previous Complaints and Reactions
FairSquare made a similar complaint to FIFA’s ethics committee in December, receiving an acknowledgement but no further information. The Norwegian football federation wrote to the FIFA ethics committee last month requesting it consider FairSquare’s complaint, and 50 members of the European Parliament urged the same committee on 29 June to address the issue. FIFA and the IOC have been contacted for comment.
