{"id":627676,"date":"2026-09-17T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627676\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T17:12:11","slug":"fa-chief-writes-to-infantino-demanding-release-of-world-cup-sell-off-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627676\/","title":{"rendered":"FA chief writes to Infantino demanding release of World Cup sell-off documents"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Football Association was troubled by the Balogun situation from the outset, and had requested the release of the documents relating to his overturned ban during the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Forward Balogun, 25, was allowed to play against Belgium in the last 16 when he would have expected to be serving a one-match suspension.<\/p>\n

The striker had been shown a straight red card for a foul on defender Tarik Muharemovic in the 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the last 32.<\/p>\n

Fifa then said the automatic one-match ban would be suspended for a year. No reasoning behind the move was provided, beyond citing a rule which allows punishments to be suspended.<\/p>\n

The FA, which had sent a letter of support for Infantino’s re-election before the Balogun incident, had deep concerns about political intervention.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump later confirmed he called Infantino asking for Balogun’s ban to be reviewed. <\/p>\n

Then the FFE proposal, revealed through the media just days after the World Cup final, fractured the game. <\/p>\n

Fifa and Infantino were accused of breaking trust “through deception”<\/a> in an open letter issued by Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation last month.<\/p>\n

Many national associations, including those of England, Wales and Scotland, have withdrawn letters of support for Infantino’s re-election. <\/p>\n

But Infantino still holds a great deal of support around the globe, with the confederations of Africa, South America and Oceania reiterating their backing.<\/p>\n

After FFE was cancelled, Infantino called a meeting of the Fifa management board in Rabat, Morocco. <\/p>\n

But as yet there has been no contact with the Fifa Council to explain the controversial plan. <\/p>\n

That is set to change next month when Infantino must face Hewitt and the other 35 Fifa Council members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Football Association was troubled by the Balogun situation from the outset, and had requested the release of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-627676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}