{"id":26834,"date":"2026-07-06T20:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/26834\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T20:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:40:18","slug":"belgium-denied-appeal-us-soccer-stars-eligibility-trump-confirms-fifa-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/26834\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium Denied Appeal US Soccer Star’s Eligibility; Trump Confirms FIFA Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tUPDATED at 12:10 p.m.: FIFA<\/a> quickly denied an appeal by Belgian soccer authorities over the repeal of USMNT<\/a> star Folarin Balogun\u2019s one-match suspension after his red card in the team\u2019s last World Cup<\/a> game against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday. That, according to multiple reports. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe U.S. match against Belgium is tonight.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe FIFA Appeal Committee has rendered a request submitted by the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) as inadmissible,\u201d \u200baccording to a statement from FIFA.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe request was rendered inadmissible on the grounds that the RBFA \u200bis not a party to the proceedings and, as such, has no standing to \u2060appeal the decision.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe RBFA said that it had not yet received any explanation for the repeal. It also noted that \u201cThis leaves all further actions open.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile it\u2019s not clear what those actions are, Reuters reported<\/a> that the RBFA said it contested Balogun\u2019s eligibility with the U.S. Soccer Federation. <\/p>\n

\n\tPREVIOUSLY: 8:01 AM: President Donald Trump confirmed Monday morning that he called FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to request a review into USMNT star Folarin Balogun\u2019s one-match suspension after his red card at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump says soccer\u2019s governing body \u201cmade the right decision\u201d to suspend the ban, adding it would have left a \u201cbig stain\u201d on the tournament had it stood.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking at the White House on Monday, Trump admitting calling FIFA because \u201cdidn\u2019t think it was a foul \u2014 and, you know, I\u2019m good at this stuff.\u201d The U.S. president had taken to social media Sunday to praise FIFA\u2019s U-turn.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump is a close friend of FIFA\u2019s Infantino, who awarded the POTUS with the organization\u2019s first Peace Prize. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tPREVIOUSLY, 3:15 AM: European soccer body UEFA<\/a> is the latest to weigh in on FIFA\u2019s controversial decision to overturn U.S. soccer star Folarin Balogun\u2019s red card suspension for Monday\u2019s game against Belgium.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a remarkable message just posted to its site, UEFA tore into world soccer body FIFA, saying it had \u201ccrossed a red line\u201d and described the move as \u201cunprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.\u201d You can read the full statement below.<\/p>\n

\n\tBalogun received a straight red card for a tackle during the U.S.\u2019 World Cup round-of-32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following reported White House lobbying for a review into the suspension, FIFA took the unprecedented step during a major tournament of suspending the red card for a year, meaning the striker can suit up for his country against Belgium in their round-of-16 clash later today.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe move, which has garnered significant media attention, has been met with shock and outrage in many quarters of the soccer world. Belgium has said it is exploring legal options, while multiple leading managers have condemned the decision, including England\u2019s Thomas Tuchel and Norway\u2019s Stale Solbakken.<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s the full UEFA statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s decision to suspend for a probationary period of a year the implementation of the one-match automatic suspension following the red card issued to the player Folarin Balogun crossed a red line.<\/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.<\/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. Equally, such decision creates a precedent in the ongoing tournament, where similar situations will now require an equal treatment, to the detriment of the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball is the most loved sport in the world because it is a beautiful game and is trusted because it is played everywhere with the same laws. A tournament is never a pure stand alone and, if the tournament in question is the World Cup, it has the power to drive positive or negative consequences on the game as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTom Tapp contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATED at 12:10 p.m.: FIFA quickly denied an appeal by Belgian soccer authorities over the repeal of USMNT…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,5731,15227,15209,4529,1849,3206],"class_list":["post-26834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-fifa","tag-florian-balogun","tag-uefa","tag-usmnt","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116874970706082018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26834","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=26834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}