{"id":134313,"date":"2026-07-23T18:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/134313\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T18:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:45:12","slug":"folarin-baloguns-red-card-reversal-flagged-by-world-cup-betting-watchdog-in-bombshell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/134313\/","title":{"rendered":"Folarin Balogun’s red-card reversal flagged by World Cup betting watchdog in bombshell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Folarin Balogun situation<\/a> just won\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n

According to the Group of Copenhagen, an independent international gambling watchdog, the Balogun controversy, in which he was cited for a red card and then had it rescinded by a lone FIFA official<\/a>, is one of several World Cup events that were flagged in a post-tournament report by the auditor. <\/p>\n

According to a report by The Athletic<\/a>, the Group of Copenhagen has handed out seven \u201cyellow notices\u201d pertaining to the 104-match tournament, which attracted $240 billion in bets, per the group\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

Folarin Balogun\u2019s red card is being investigated by a gambling integrity firm. AP Photo\/Julio Cortez<\/p>\n

The Group of Copenhagen, which is the sporting integrity arm of the Council of Europe<\/a> and was established in 2016 to snuff out match-fixing, categorizes events and labels them with a color: Green (normal), yellow (slightly increased alert), orange (increased alert) or red (highest alert).<\/p>\n

One of the instances that drew the ire of the ombudsman was the infamous rescinding of Balogun\u2019s red card ahead of Team USA\u2019s match with Belgium in the Round of 16.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that just because a situation has been flagged by the Group of Copenhagen doesn\u2019t mean it is due to match-fixing or manipulation.<\/p>\n

According to the Group of Copenhagen, Polymarket<\/a> allowed users to trade on whether or not Balogun would be allowed to play against Belgium. The market was posted on the same day that the American striker was sent off against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Round of 32.<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s Disciplinary Committee eventually reversed the ban, allowing Balogun to play in the USMNT\u2019s 4-1 loss to Belgium.<\/p>\n

Per the report, no other markets were posted for the other 14 players who were shown a red card at the World Cup. Balogun\u2019s was the only ban to be overturned.<\/p>\n

Spain and Cape Verde\u2019s nil-nil draw was labeled with a \u201cyellow notice.\u201d AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Group of Copenhagen has reportedly sent an official request for a written explanation to FIFA regarding the Balogun situation.<\/p>\n

The full report has yet to be released, but the Council of Europe posted a summary of its findings, and sources told The Athletic that three other events were under investigation:<\/p>\n

Themba Zwane\u2019s red card in the late stages of South Africa\u2019s loss to Mexico in the tournament\u2019s opening match.<\/p>\n

Polymarket taking $4.8 million on Spain to NOT beat Cape Verde in their match on June 15, which ended nil-nil.<\/p>\n

A three-and-a-half-minute review from the video assistant referee (VAR) which disallowed a goal by Spain\u2019s Ferran Torres in his side\u2019s 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia on June 21.<\/p>\n

According to the Council of Europe, 15 of the 104 matches were placed under \u201cenhanced monitoring, particularly during the final round of the group stage.\u201d <\/p>\n

The council noted that 12 \u201cmajor controversies\u201d were assessed from an \u201cintegrity risk perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA and Kalshi struck a partnership deal for the 2026 World Cup. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Group of Copenhagen\u2019s notices can be explained by atypical behaviours such as changes in odds or hedging liquidities, there are many explanations that are not manipulations,\u201d Christian Kalb, an expert on gambling integrity and regulation, told\u00a0The Athletic. \u201cThe major problem is when there may be a conflict of interest and potential inside information on those issues. When we speak of prediction markets, we can detect some unusual behaviours, but we must be very careful as they can be used for hedging markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, if you are a boutique bookmaker and you are taking a ton of action on a heavy favorite to win a particular match, you could use a prediction market to hedge the risk by backing the underdog with a large wager. Kalb notes that this would essentially be an \u201cinsurance policy\u201d to help minimize big losses if the favorite does win, but it could look suspicious without knowing the context.<\/p>\n

The rise of \u2014 and opaque regulations around \u2014 prediction markets was a point of emphasis for the Group of Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

This was the first time that the watchdog was monitoring prediction markets, including Kalshi<\/a>, an official partner of FIFA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese prediction markets raise unprecedented issues: they allow betting on a very wide range of events, often anonymously and using payment methods that are difficult to trace. Monitoring them is a first for an international competition,\u201d the group\u2019s report noted.<\/p>\n

The report came a day after FIFA\u2019s Integrity Task Force reported that there were no instances of \u201csuspicious betting activity or indications of match manipulation in connection with any fixture\u201d at the tournament, which began June 11 and concluded July 19.<\/p>\n

The Group of Copenhagen\u2019s investigation was conducted in concert with FIFA\u2019s Integrity Task Force.<\/p>\n

Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n

Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Folarin Balogun situation just won\u2019t go away. According to the Group of Copenhagen, an independent international gambling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[9942,108,133,135,9944,65057,10778,11898],"class_list":["post-134313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-copenhagen","tag-betting","tag-copenhagen","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-us-mens-national-team","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116970777692444637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}