Balogun\u2019s red card for a foul on Bosnia\u2019s defender Tarik Muharemovic proved controversial at the time, with U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino and winger Christian Pulisic among those to criticize the decision immediately after Wednesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
It is no surprise, then, that the decision from FIFA\u2019s disciplinary committee \u2014 which has the power to increase bans, as well as fully or partially suspend them \u2014 has also triggered a sizeable reaction, starting from the very top.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!\u201d U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social.<\/p>\n
\u2018I thought it was AI\u2019<\/p>\n
Balogun\u2019s U.S. teammates, meanwhile, found out about the decision on the team bus to training at the University of Washington on Sunday. \u201cObviously, for us it gives us a boost,\u201d Pulisic told reporters at training.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, if you look at the foul, it was just \u2014 it\u2019s zero intent at all. I felt like there was much worse ones that went on at this tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cBalo handled it so well, and I think the team handled it well. We weren\u2019t here to complain or make some \u2014 like, you have to handle it in a good way, and, you know, good things happen to people like that. He was so positive and all for the team. It just feels right, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know when Balo found out,\u201d defender Chris Richards said to reporters. \u201cIf he knew before us, he kept it quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of us thought it was AI at first, but I think we\u2019re really excited. We found out through social media. \u2026 I thought it was AI and stuff. There\u2019s a lot of people posting a lot of stuff. So, we weren\u2019t sure if it was true or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, to be fair, we were lit on the bus regardless. We had our speaker in the back, so we were just listening to music. Then one person said something, another person said another thing, and nobody wanted to confirm it. So, like I said, pretty much right when we got here (was) when we found out that it was true.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Balogun's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2284257485-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Balogun\u2019s foul on Muharemovic drew a straight red card after a video assistant review. (Michael Steele \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Asked about Balogun\u2019s reaction, Richards added: \u201cI think he\u2019s keeping it cool right now. I think he was still nervous about if it was true or not. But I think he\u2019s very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very happy, we know how much impact he can make on the game,\u201d U.S. defender Alex Freeman said. \u201cFinding out he\u2019s available just gives us extra confidence. It was a process, but knowing he\u2019s back, we\u2019re just happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no clue (it was coming), I just found out this morning. It\u2019s a little strange, I have no clue how it happened, we\u2019re just happy it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether justice had now been served, Pulisic added: \u201cI mean, it\u2019s not for me to decide that. But of course \u2014 I think a lot of people could look at that (foul), and yeah, it was extremely harsh. So if you want to call it justice, you know, call it whatever. I mean, we were prepared to play without him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been granted this now opportunity to have him, which is great for us. And I\u2019m mostly just happy for him. Again, seeing that smile on his face, he deserves to be playing in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018FIFA is literally a law unto itself\u2019<\/p>\n
Not all the reaction to Balogun\u2019s red card suspension being reversed has been positive.<\/p>\n
The Belgian federation said it was \u201castonished\u201d by the decision, that it was in \u201cdirect contradiction\u201d with the competition regulations and said it is exploring \u201call potential options\u201d.<\/p>\n
The statement from the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) continued: \u201cIn order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at this FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament, the RBFA is investigating all potential options.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the game\u2019s governing body, FIFA is literally a law unto itself, and its latest decision to excuse U.S striker Folarin Balogun from a suspension is out of line with its most recent precedent,\u201d Graham Scott, a former Premier League referee for a decade, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the group stages, Qatari player Assim Madibo had his mandatory one-match ban upgraded to five games after he broke the leg of the unfortunate Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9 of Canada.
His tackle and Balogun\u2019s tackles were similar, in that neither is malicious, but both inadvertently put opponents at risk of serious or actual injury. The on-field referees initially awarded yellow cards, which was reasonable, before VAR watched replays that prompted upgrades to red.<\/p>\n
\u201cFar worse tackles delivered at great speed and intensity sometimes result in lesser sanctions because the aggressor happens to miss his target. That doesn\u2019t feel fair to me, as players deserve to be judged on their actions, not the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The whole world thought the United States would have to be without its star striker, Folarin Balogun, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,113962,6090,3,403,21,19,22,20,25,47812,24],"class_list":["post-745168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-international-football","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-mens-national-team","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}