The Belgian federation challenged FIFA\u2019s decision to allow Folarin Balogun to play in the World Cup match. <\/p>\n
Balogun had been issued a red card and was suspended during the U.S. team\u2019s win over Bosnia, but the league decided to put his automatic suspension on hold for a year under Article 27 of FIFA\u2019s disciplinary code. <\/p>\n
Balogun stepped on the ankle of Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic during their match in the round of 32, The Associated Press<\/a> reported. The U.S. won 2-0.<\/p>\n Despite the delay in punishment, Balogun could find himself out of the tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Folarin Balogun commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension shall be revoked and the sanction enforced without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infringement,\u201d FIFA said in a statement, according to The Washington Post<\/a>. <\/p>\n Before the decision to appeal, Belgium\u2019s coach Rudi Garcia said the organization\u2019s move was like an April Fool\u2019s Day prank. <\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t realize July 5 was equal to April 1 at FIFA,\u201d he said via an interpreter. \u201cWe are not defending the national team or the federation \u2014 we are defending football, whether it\u2019s ethics or integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n The Union of European Football Association (UEFA)<\/a> said the probationary period \u201ccrossed a red line.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFootball, like any other sports, relies on rules, which are the basis for fair, honest and transparent competition. Sometimes rules are open to interpretation. In this case not. A minimum automatic suspension of one match following a red card is not a discretionary option and does not require the decision of a competent body to be enacted. It is a principle embedded in regulations, which cannot be made subject to exceptions, let alone in the middle of a tournament where several other players have been in the same situation and regularly served their suspension,\u201d the group<\/a> said.<\/p>\n On Monday morning, hours before the U.S faces Belgium in the quarterfinals, Belgium was given the right to appeal and did so, The Athletic <\/a>reported.<\/p>\n The Royal Belgian Football Association told The Athletic<\/a> that it had \u201cno alternative but to challenge (Balogun\u2019s) eligibility for the upcoming match\u201d.<\/p>\n The team said it learned of FIFA\u2019s decision through media reports and is asking for an explanation of \u201cthe process\u201d and \u201capplicable regulations.\u201d<\/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. No information whatsoever was provided by FIFA,\u201d RBFA said, according to The Athletic<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cFor an appeal to be admissible, FIFA\u2019s own regulations state that the reasoned decision must first have been communicated to the appellant. While the RBFA was merely seeking legitimate explanations, FIFA itself created an appeal and immediately ensured that it would be declared inadmissible.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of this occurred while FIFA simultaneously refused to respond to the RBFA\u2019s legitimate requests \u2026 To be clear, as of this moment, the RBFA has still not received any decision or any explanation from FIFA regarding this matter. It therefore has no alternative but to challenge the player\u2019s eligibility for the upcoming match.\u201d<\/p>\n Belgium and the U.S. face off at 8pm ET (5PM PT) at Lumen Field in Seattle.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Belgian federation challenged FIFA\u2019s decision to allow Folarin Balogun to play in the World Cup match. Balogun…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,14193,5731,4559,15199,13894,15085,14192],"class_list":["post-26710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-bestof","tag-fifa","tag-folarin-balogun","tag-foul","tag-red-card","tag-tarik-muharemovic","tag-topix"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116873665326630135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26710","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=26710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}