Folarin Balogun World Cup red card overturned; U.S. striker to play vs. Belgium

by · The Seattle Times

The United States will have star striker Folarin Balogun available after all for Monday’s FIFA Men’s World Cup matchup with Belgium. 

FIFA announced Sunday its Disciplinary Committee suspended Balogun’s one-game ban after he picked up a red card in the second half of the U.S. win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 16 earlier this week.

U.S. Soccer received word from FIFA shortly after 7:30 a.m. on Sunday morning but players didn’t find out until the news started to emerge on social media as the team was making the short bus trip from its hotel to the UW soccer facility.

“I mean, we weren’t quite sure if it was true or not. I think everyone knows with AI and this and that, it can be a few question marks,” U.S. defender Chris Richards said. “But ultimately we found out through social media, so it was cool to finally get the confirmation that it was true.”

Related More World Cup

More

Balogun scored late in the first half against Bosnia but was sent off after a video review of a challenge early in the second half. Balogun wasn’t called for a foul on the field, but video review later determined that his challenge on Tarik Muharemovic was worthy of being sent off.

The decision immediately became one of the big talking points after the match and in the days since. Most analysts believed the foul was a yellow card at most and not worthy of a red card and subsequent suspension.

“Anyone can look at that and say it was super harsh,” teammate Christian Pulisic said. “I think it’s just we’re excited for him, mostly, to have him back.”

The suspension of the red card was issued by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee after a review and came under Article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. The statement from FIFA said, “the implementation of the automatic match suspension for USA player Folarin Balogun is suspended for a probationary period of one (1) year.”

Article 27 allows for the suspension to be reinstated if person benefiting commits another infringement during the probation period. U.S. Soccer was engaged in the process of the review, a team spokesperson said.

The Associated Press and The Athletic reported that the White House made a call to FIFA asking for a review of the red card decision, citing unnamed sources. President Donald Trump posted on his social media network, “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”

The Royal Belgian Football Association was not pleased with FIFA’s decision and issued a scathing statement Sunday afternoon saying it was “astonished” by the decision.

“In 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,” the RBFA statement said.

Belgium coach Rudi Garcia joked starting his news conference on Sunday that he didn’t know July 5 had become April 1 and April Fools’ Day.

“A lot of our thoughts and opinions are in the release,” Garcia said via an interpreter. “We’re not defending the national team or the federation. We are defending football, whether it’s ethics or integrity.”

Garcia was peppered with several questions about the decision regarding Balogun, but eventually said he only would answer questions related to the game. Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said the decision being made the day before the match was a bit of a surprise, but wouldn’t change the approach for his team.

“For us as players nothing changes. We focus on the game, whoever plays,” Courtois said.

It’s rare this kind of decision is made, but it happened not that long ago. Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo was issued a red card in Portugal’s second-to-last competitive match before the World Cup. Ronaldo was initially given a three-game suspension which would have sidelined him for the first two group stage matches of the World Cup. But FIFA suspended the second and third games of that suspension for a one-year period, making Ronaldo eligible to play when the tournament started.

Teammates said Balogun was clearly — and understandably — thrilled with the news.

“I just saw a big smile on his face,” Pulisic said. “I got to see him, and dap him up after that. Knowing that we’re having him around tomorrow, just it helps us so much and it just gives a big boost.”

Balogun is the leading scorer for the U.S. with three goals in the tournament. 

This story will be updated.