\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The European football governing body, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), issued a statement on Monday condemning the lifting of the ban on United States striker Folarin Balogun. The striker was shown a red card during the U.S. 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in an automatic one-game ban for the following game.<\/p>\n
Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute when he pressed his studs against Bosnia\u2019s Tarik Muharemovic\u2019s ankle while they fought for a loose ball. Brazilian referee Raphael Claus did not show a red card at first, but reversed his decision after being called upon by the Video Assistant Referee VAR to review the play.<\/p>\n
International football governing body FIFA (F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de Football Association) announced on Sunday the reversal of the ban under Article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, placing Balogun on a one-year probationary period instead and clearing him to play with the U.S. in its round-of-16 clash against Belgium.<\/p>\n
According to UEFA, FIFA\u2019s decision to lift the ban \u201ccrossed a red line.\u201d<\/p>\n
The European football governing body insisted that the sport \u201crelies on rules, which are the basis for fair, honest and transparent competition\u201d and insisted that while \u201csometimes rules are open to interpretation,\u201d the automatic ban after a red card is not one of those<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake, and the credibility of a competition is undermined,\u201d said the statement, adding the decision \u201ccreates a precedent\u201d and sets the stage where \u201csimilar situations will now require equal treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,\u201d concludes the UEFA communiqu\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s influence The controversial decision grew even more of a hot topic after United States president Donald Trump admitted on Monday during a press conference at the Oval Office to having called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to ask for a review.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I did was ask for a review. I didn\u2019t say, \u2018You have to do this,\u2019\u201d Trump said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled [SIC].\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. president had already backed the decision through a message on his Truth Social account on Sunday<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n
Pochettino backs his player While the decision to revert the red card ban proves controversial, so had the call initially. At the time, many questioned whether the decision had been justified as the move could be seen as involuntary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Others compared it to a similar action by Argentina star Lionel Messi in the Albiceleste\u2019s opener against Algeria, which went unpunished.<\/p>\n
After the match, U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino said that the tackle \u201cwas never a red card\u201d and maintained that the forward \u201cnever intended to step on his opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the press conference ahead of the game against Belgium, Pochettino reiterated that the red card was excessive.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone who really loves the sport and trusts ethics and integrity, I think we celebrate all that decision,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cWe were punished enough against Bosnia Herzegovina to play with 10 men for 30 minutes [because of] a decision that was completely unfair. 99.9% of people agree it was an unfair red card.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia didn\u2019t agree, calling the decision an \u201cApril Fools\u201d call.<\/p>\n
The U.S. is set to take on Belgium at Lumen Field in Seattle on Monday, with the match set to kick off at 9 p.m. Argentina time.<\/p>\n
Cover image: USMNT Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European football governing body, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), issued a statement on Monday condemning the lifting of the ban on United States striker Folarin Balogun. The striker was shown a red card during the U.S. 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in an automatic one-game ban for the following game. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":86623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,60,22310,66,67,256,339],"tags":[5307,88,22343,1368,1369,902,3576],"class_list":["post-86622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-donald-trump","category-folarin-balogun","category-football","category-sports","category-united-states","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-donald-trump","tag-folarin-balogun","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}