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The headline-making reversal of U.S. soccer player Folarin Balogun\u2019s red-card suspension after the call by President Donald Trump to FIFA President Gianni Infantino is providing important real-time crisis management lessons for business leaders. (Photo by Jamie Squire\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
The headline-making reversal of U.S. soccer player Folarin Balogun\u2019s red-card suspension after an inquiry by President Donald Trump to FIFA President Gianni Infantino is providing important real-time crisis management lessons for business leaders.<\/p>\n
FIFA\u2019s reversal sparked a firestorm in the sporting world<\/a> as the U.S. prepared for its match against Belgium. Balogun initially had been banned from playing in tonight\u2019s game after he received a red card last week, NBC News<\/a> reported. Trump said today that he asked Infantino to review the decision, but emphasized that he did not unduly influence the controversial decision, according to Politico<\/a>. <\/p>\n The controversy highlights an important crisis management lesson for business leaders: stakeholders can focus as much attention on how decisions are made and explained as they do on the decisions themselves. Questions about transparency and fairness can quickly become part of the story.<\/p>\n \u2018Proximity to power can be a liability\u2019<\/p>\n PR and crisis management experts weighed in with their takes on what corporate executives can learn from the unfolding controversy. \u201cIf I\u2019m counseling a CEO watching this, I\u2019d point [out that] proximity to power can be a liability, not an asset. Infantino\u2019s coziness with Trump just turned FIFA into a case study in regulatory capture. Every business leader should note how fast that dynamic became a public trust problem,\u201d Doyle Albee, co-founder and managing partner of Prolexity, a public relations agency.<\/p>\n Corporate leaders often spend years building relationships with elected officials, regulators, and other influential stakeholders. During a controversy, however, those same relationships can raise questions about whether decisions were based on merit, influence, or preferential treatment. The situation also illustrates how relationships that may be beneficial during normal times can create challenges during controversies. Business leaders should recognize that close ties to influential political figures, regulators, or others may attract additional and unwanted scrutiny when questions arise about a decision. <\/p>\n There are reasons why there are\u2014or should be\u2014processes for dealing with controversies and crisis situations. \u201cFIFA pointed to its rulebook [to justify the reversal], but everyone from Brussels to Bergen sees what happened. If your organization can\u2019t explain a decision in a way that passes the sniff test, the bylaws won\u2019t save you. Perception is its own jurisdiction,\u201d Albee advised. <\/p>\n The controversy is also a reality check that simply following established procedures may not be enough to satisfy stakeholders and others. Companies can face criticism even if they believe they have acted appropriately when they fail to clearly explain how a decision was reached. <\/p>\n One of the recurring themes in crisis management is that organizations frequently confuse compliance with credibility. A company may follow every rule and procedure correctly, but if stakeholders do not understand or trust the process, the results can damage the reputation, image, and credibility of the organization.<\/p>\n FIFA President Gianni Infantino speaks to the media during a FIFA World Cup 2026 Opening Press Conference on June 10, 2026 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by VCG\/VCG via Getty Images)<\/p>\n VCG via Getty ImagesWhen explanations are needed<\/p>\n Providing clear and straight forward explanations about decisions is a basic principle of effective crisis management. \u201cIf FIFA believed [reversing the decision] was the right call, it owed the world a detailed, transparent accounting of the evidence and the reasoning, published before the criticism, not after. Instead, it left a vacuum, and Belgium, UEFA and every pundit with a microphone filled it and we are watching the fallout real time,\u201d Christine M. Haas, CEO of Christine Haas Media, said in an email message to me.<\/p>\n The lesson for business executives is that perceptions matter. Even when leaders believe they have made the right decision, stakeholders may reach a different conclusion if they do not understand how or why the decision was made. That can create reputational risks that are difficult to overcome.<\/p>\n An unexplained exception to established rules can be perceived as favoritism. Your reputation isn\u2019t what you decide: it is what others believe about how you made a decision, according to Haas.<\/p>\n A classic mistake <\/p>\n FIFA also made a classic crisis management mistake: it went quiet and has stayed quiet in the aftermath of the reversal of its decision. One of the most common mistakes companies can make during a crisis is allowing an information vacuum to develop. When leaders do not provide a timely explanation, critics, commentators, and social media users often step in to shape the narratives themselves. <\/p>\n Regardless of whether FIFA made the right decision when it suspended the red-card ruling, the controversy serves as a timely reminder that transparency, consistency, and communication are critical when a crisis strikes. Business leaders who fail to explain controversial decisions clearly and promptly may find themselves dealing with a second crisis\u2014one involving trust and credibility.<\/p>\n The FIFA controversy also shows how quickly a decision can evolve into a crisis of confidence when people believe that different rules may apply to different people. For organizations facing their own controversies, protecting trust can be as important as defending the decision itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headline-making reversal of U.S. soccer player Folarin Balogun\u2019s red-card suspension after the call by President Donald Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,12,101,7183,320927,403,2830,84938],"class_list":["post-747870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-fifa","tag-folarian-balogun","tag-soccer","tag-u-s","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747870","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=747870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}