{"id":795972,"date":"2026-07-11T23:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T23:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/795972\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T23:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T23:31:17","slug":"world-cup-2026-fifa-official-refuses-to-answer-ban-questions-from-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/795972\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Fifa official refuses to answer ban questions from BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of Fifa’s disciplinary committee has refused to answer BBC questions about the decision-making process which led to United States striker Folarin Balogun avoiding a ban after being sent off.<\/p>\n

Balogun, 25, was dismissed for serious foul play against Bosnia-Herzegovina. He should have received a ban for two games.<\/p>\n

However, Fifa’s disciplinary committee waived a ban<\/a> – a decision that prompted widespread condemnation, particularly when it emerged US President Donald Trump and White House officials had lobbied Fifa about the American’s sanction.<\/p>\n

England’s Jarell Quansah was similarly shown a red card in England’s 3-2 win over Mexico<\/a> following a high challenge on Jesus Gallardo and the same committee ruled he should serve a two-match ban.<\/p>\n

It was classed as serious foul play, meaning the Bayer Leverkusen player was handed an extra match on top of the automatic one-game suspension by Fifa.<\/p>\n

BBC sports editor Dan Roan confronted Mohammad al Kamali, the chair of Fifa’s disciplinary committee, as he arrived for England’s quarter-final against Norway<\/a> on Saturday. He asked:<\/p>\n

Can we ask about the Balogun suspension and whether or not you were asked by the Fifa president to suspend that ban?<\/p>\n

Can you tell us anything about that at all?<\/p>\n

Can you tell us anything about that at all or why Jarell Quansah was given a two-match suspension?<\/p>\n

Can you make any comment about the way it’s been portrayed or reported on?<\/p>\n

Anything at all you can say, sir?<\/p>\n

However, Al Kamali would not answer any of the questions.<\/p>\n

Fifa released an 871-word statement following the Balogun decision to stress it was made after “considering all of the specific circumstances surrounding the incident and evidence available” – but without detailing what had been taken into account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Fifa’s disciplinary committee has refused to answer BBC questions about the decision-making process which led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-795972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}