{"id":783728,"date":"2026-07-07T00:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783728\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T00:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:40:11","slug":"fifa-dismisses-belgium-appeal-over-folarin-balogun-ban-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783728\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA dismisses Belgium appeal over Folarin Balogun ban decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of USMNT vs Belgium<\/a> in the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Folarin Balogun has been named in the starting lineup for the United States\u2019 World Cup round-of-16 game against Belgium after FIFA dismissed a challenge over the striker\u2019s eligibility.<\/p>\n

Despite being sent off against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the 25-year-old striker was made available for the game in Seattle on Monday night after an intervention involving U.S. President Donald Trump, government officials, U.S. Soccer and an extensive legal team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Belgium formally objected to the decision to suspend his one-game ban, saying it had \u201cno alternative but to challenge (Balogun\u2019s) eligibility for the upcoming match\u201d.<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s appeal committee, however, has rendered the request submitted by the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) as \u201cinadmissible\u201d. They did so on the grounds that \u201cthe RBFA is not a party to the proceedings and, as such, has no standing to appeal the decision,\u201d a statement from FIFA said.<\/p>\n

In response the RBFA acknowledged receipt of the decision before indicating \u201cfurther actions\u201d were still open to the federation.<\/p>\n

A statement read: \u201cTo date, the RBFA has still not received any grounds for this decision, nor has it received the information it has been requesting since the start of this procedure for a copy of the decision and the motivation declaring the player eligible as well as the referee\u2019s report. Which is a breach of FIFA regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe RBFA has informed the United States Soccer Federation that it contests the eligibility of the player, should the player be listed on the referee\u2019s team sheet. This leaves all further actions open.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Soccer has been approached for comment by The Athletic.<\/p>\n

How did we get here?<\/p>\n

Balogun was sent off after a challenge on Bosnia defender Tarik Muharemovic during the first half of the U.S.\u2019 2-0 round-of-32 win on Wednesday. He was initially not booked before referee Raphael Claus was sent to review the incident on the pitchside monitor and ultimately reversed his call, dismissing him.<\/p>\n

Red cards at the 2026 World Cup come with an automatic one-game suspension. There is no mechanism for teams to appeal with an independent panel holding the power to increase sanctions should it see fit.<\/p>\n

On Sunday The Athletic revealed that FIFA had decided to suspend Balogun\u2019s ban for the period of one year, citing Article 27 of its disciplinary code, with questions subsequently being raised by many observers<\/a> about the integrity of the competition.<\/p>\n

Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia, whose team face the U.S. on Monday, joked that he wondered if the whole situation was an April Fools prank.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Belgian federation isn\u2019t just defending itself or the national team; it\u2019s defending football in general \u2014 its integrity and its ethics,\u201d Garcia added in a news conference Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I recall, I think this is the first time in World Cup history that a decision like this has been made. Anyway, I\u2019m the coach, so I\u2019m going to focus on my team and the match \u2014 it doesn\u2019t matter who makes up the USA\u2019s starting lineup. What matters to me is the pitch, my team, winning, and reaching the quarterfinals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following The Athletic\u2019s exclusive story, a New York Times report<\/a> stated that Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino in the wake of Wednesday\u2019s game to ask for a review into Balogun\u2019s suspension.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s role in the suspension being overturned is under scrutiny. (Mandel Ngan \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A source familiar with the situation confirmed to The Athletic that a call did take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!\u201d Trump posted on Truth Social after the news had broken.<\/p>\n

Balogun has started in all but one game for the U.S., scoring twice in the team\u2019s opener against Paraguay. He was rested in the dead-rubber final group game against Turkey before returning to score in the first half against Bosnia.<\/p>\n

Balogun\u2019s U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino defended FIFA\u2019s decision and was adamant justice had been done after a red card he believed should never have been shown.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, there isn\u2019t much debate here, though I do understand Belgium\u2019s perspective and Rudi\u2019s point of view,\u201d Pochettino told reporters. \u201cI understand why people conflate issues \u2014 people always do, because there\u2019s often an agenda to mix things up \u2014 but in this case, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone was harmed in this whole situation, it was the United States. Can anyone justify the idea that we weren\u2019t punished? I mean, playing 30 or 35 minutes a man down in a World Cup knockout match? It\u2019s not as if we\u2019re benefiting. No, no. There\u2019s no extraordinary gain we\u2019re getting out of all this. I mean, ultimately, we aren\u2019t victims, but we aren\u2019t the villains of this story either.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of USMNT vs Belgium in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.\u00a0 Folarin Balogun has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,2071,126352,596,18943,13198,85,274542],"class_list":["post-783728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belgium","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-football","tag-international-football","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-us-mens-national-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}