{"id":763560,"date":"2026-07-15T02:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/763560\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T02:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:47:13","slug":"us-star-balogun-knew-red-card-reversal-would-cause-a-lot-of-controversy-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/763560\/","title":{"rendered":"US star Balogun knew red card reversal would \u2018cause a lot of controversy\u2019 | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a><\/p>\n

The striker says FIFA\u2019s decision to suspend his one-match ban led to \u2018a lot of outside noise\u2019 before USA\u2019s knockout match.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 15 Jul 202615 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

US striker Folarin Balogun says he expected \u201ca lot of controversy\u201d after FIFA suspended his one-game ban<\/a> at the World Cup following United States President Donald Trump\u2019s request to review the decision.<\/p>\n

Balogun was sent off during his team\u2019s 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/a> in the last 32, but FIFA controversially suspended his ban for a one-year probationary period. The striker has spoken about the incident for the first time in an interview with CBS Mornings on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cMy initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team. But when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it was something that\u2019s so unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could. But it was difficult \u2013 a lot of outside noise, and that\u2019s hard to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balogun received the red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Bosnia\u2019s Tarik Muharemovic in a 2-0 win for the USA in their round-of-32 match, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s decision to suspend that ban \u2013 leading to Falogun playing in the game against Belgium \u2013 caused a furore in the football world, and accusations that the body bent its rules to please Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The global football body announced that it had suspended the red card after the US president urged FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to review the case.<\/p>\n

The decision prompted criticism from Belgium\u2019s football association, Europe\u2019s top football body, a former FIFA boss, multiple top former players, and many others. Critics argued that overturning a red card suspension after direct political intervention undermined the integrity of the tournament and set a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n

Balogun conceded that the saga led to a confusing few days for him. After the red card, he took on a supporting role in training to try to keep the team\u2019s morale high before finding out he was cleared to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found out on the team bus. Everybody was like screaming and shouting,\u201d Balogun said. \u201cIt was a pretty intense bus ride to the practice field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US striker said it was not hard to separate \u201cthe emotion from the job at hand\u201d ahead of the match against Belgium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all professionals, so it\u2019s not something I think was too difficult to be able to separate once we kind of got over the initial announcement that I\u2019d be back in the team,\u201d Balogun added.<\/p>\n

The USA lost 1-4 to Belgium, with Balogun struggling to influence the game, following a fine overall tournament in which he scored three goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The striker says FIFA\u2019s decision to suspend his one-match ban led to \u2018a lot of outside noise\u2019 before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,15106,165064,12,1076,399,3,111,1079,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24,84938,153412],"class_list":["post-763560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-belgium","tag-bosnia-herzegovina","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-sport","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-usa","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763560","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=763560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}