{"id":26706,"date":"2026-07-06T14:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/26706\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T14:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:55:15","slug":"belgian-federation-to-challenge-fifas-call-to-let-u-s-forward-folarin-balogun-play-at-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/26706\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian federation to challenge FIFA’s call to let U.S. forward Folarin Balogun play at World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Belgian soccer federation wants an explanation from FIFA about a decision to let U.S forward<\/a> Folarin Balogun play at the World Cup<\/a> despite getting a red card in his previous game.<\/p>\n

Belgium takes on the United States later Monday for a spot in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

The Belgian federation (RBFA) said it has still not received either \u201cFIFA\u2019s decision or any explanation regarding this matter. In these circumstances, it has no choice but to challenge the player\u2019s eligibility for the upcoming match.\u201d <\/p>\n

It did not specify where it intends to appeal FIFA\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> intervened on behalf of star U.S. forward Balogun, whose red-card suspension was lifted in a decision that allowed him to play against Belgium.<\/p>\n

The Belgian federation said it learned through media reports about the FIFA\u2019s move and sent a letter to the governing body requesting a copy of the decision as well as an explanation of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs its only response, FIFA sent a letter to the RBFA stating that it considered this correspondence to constitute an appeal, that a judge had been appointed, and that the RBFA had only a few hours to complete that appeal,\u201d it said. \u201cNo information whatsoever was provided by FIFA.<\/p>\n

The RBFA insisted that FIFA\u2019s regulations state that the reasoned decision must first have been communicated to the appellant. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the RBFA was merely seeking legitimate explanations, FIFA itself created an appeal and immediately ensured that it would be declared inadmissible,\u201d it said. \u201cAll of this occurred while FIFA simultaneously refused to respond to the RBFA\u2019s legitimate requests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balogun, the star forward for the U.S. with three goals in the tournament, received a red card<\/a> for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemovi\u0107 of Bosnia-Herzegovina in a 2-0 round of 32 win on Wednesday, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.<\/p>\n

FIFA announced Sunday that the suspension had been lifted for the round of 16 match, an extraordinary move<\/a> that triggered praise from Trump and outrage from Belgium\u2019s team. It appeared to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup didn\u2019t result in a suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of the sporting outcome of this match, the RBFA is deeply concerned by the course of events and will continue to fight in the coming hours, days and months in defense of the fundamental principles of ethics, fair competition, and the interests of football as a whole,\u201d the Belgian federation added.<\/p>\n

The FIFA decision drew criticism from the European Commission, the powerful executive arm of the European Union, which is based in Brussels.<\/p>\n

Glenn Micallef, the European Union\u2019s commissioner for sport, said that decisions \u201con sporting rules and sporting matters belong to sporting bodies, not politicians.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cInfluencing sporting decisions would undermine the autonomy of sport,\u201d he wrote in a message on X. \u201cOur focus should instead be on the real governance challenges facing sport, including the weaponization of sport for political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Belgian soccer federation wants an explanation from FIFA about a decision to let U.S forward Folarin Balogun…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,381,5731,3933,4559,4738,3934,1176],"class_list":["post-26706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-donald-trump","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-folarin-balogun","tag-glenn-micallef","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116873614273650175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}