{"id":287897,"date":"2026-07-06T11:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T11:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/287897\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T11:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T11:20:27","slug":"belgium-granted-right-to-appeal-against-fifas-folarin-balogun-ban-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/287897\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium granted right to appeal against FIFA\u2019s Folarin Balogun ban decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium has been granted the right to appeal against FIFA\u2019s decision to suspend the one-game ban handed to Folarin Balogun, less than 24 hours out from the team\u2019s round of 16 game against the United States.<\/p>\n

Despite being dismissed against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the USMNT striker is now available to face Belgium in the round of 16 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

The Belgian federation said it was \u201castonished\u201d by FIFA\u2019s decision to suspend the ban for a period of one year, citing Article 27 of its disciplinary code.<\/p>\n

The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said in a statement the move was in \u201cdirect contradiction\u201d of the competition regulations and said it is exploring \u201call potential options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources briefed on the matter, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, have now told The Athletic the federation has now formally written to FIFA to appeal the matter, and the right to appeal has been granted. Both U.S. Soccer and the Belgian federation were asked to make submissions by 5am PST on Monday morning, which has exasperated the Belgians who have not received the decision by FIFA to review, as it is not made public.<\/p>\n

A member of the FIFA appeals committee \u2013 who does not represent a federation in either UEFA or CONCACAF, so as to avoid any potential conflict of interest \u2013 has been selected to hear the case.<\/p>\n

Submissions must now be made by Monday morning, with a ruling possible before the game, but Belgium have not been provided with any guarantees by FIFA that this will be the case. It would be extraordinary at this stage if FIFA were to change their position for a second time, with Balogun under a one game ban between Wednesday night until Sunday morning, until FIFA suddenly suspended the one match ban. It is unclear whether the appeal is merely procedural or if it has a genuine chance of moving the goalposts once more ahead of a huge knockout game at a World Cup.<\/p>\n

The Athletic had already reported that Belgium has requested the full rationale behind the decision to lift Balogun\u2019s suspension, as well as the report from FIFA\u2019s refereeing body. FIFA\u2019s disciplinary committee can decide against sharing its rationale.<\/p>\n

FIFA has been approached for comment. The USMNT\u2019s last-16 tie against Belgium kicks off at 5pm PT (8pm ET) at Lumen Field in Seattle on Monday, with Balogun currently permitted to play.<\/p>\n

Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia joked that he wondered if the whole situation was an April Fools prank<\/a> before pointing to the questions now being raised by many observers about the integrity of FIFA\u2019s competition.<\/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\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s exclusive story,\u00a0a 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

A source familiar with the situation confirmed to\u00a0The 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

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s role in the suspension being overturned is under scrutiny. (Mandel Ngan \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/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\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0punished? 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>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium has been granted the right to appeal against FIFA\u2019s decision to suspend the one-game ban handed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[34200,32772,33264,9,11,10,400,8693],"class_list":["post-287897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-belgium","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-international-football","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-soccer","tag-us-mens-national-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}