FIFA's Balogun decision 'crossed a red line' says UEFA

UEFA says FIFA's decision to suspend a red card shown to United States striker Folarin Balogun "crossed a red line".

The former Arsenal forward is free to face Belgium in the last 16 on Monday evening, unless an appeal by the Belgian Football Association (RBFA) is successful.

It has been reported the decision to suspend the ban came after political pressure from the US government, and while neither FIFA nor the US authorities have commented, European football’s governing body UEFA has now waded in.

"Yesterday’s decision to suspend for a probationary period of a year the implementation of the one-match automatic suspension following the red card issued to the player Folarin Balogun crossed a red line," a UEFA statement began.

"Football, like any other sports, relies on rules, which are the basis for fair, honest and transparent competition. Sometimes rules are open to interpretation. In this case not. A minimum automatic suspension of one match following a red card is not a discretionary option and does not require the decision of a competent body to be enacted. It is a principle embedded in regulations, which cannot be made subject to exceptions, let alone in the middle of a tournament where several other players have been in the same situation and regularly served their suspension.

"When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined. Equally, such decision creates a precedent in the ongoing tournament, where similar situations will now require an equal treatment, to the detriment of the competition.

"Football is the most loved sport in the world because it is a beautiful game and is trusted because it is played everywhere with the same laws. A tournament is never a pure standalone and, if the tournament in question is the World Cup, it has the power to drive positive or negative consequences on the game as a whole.

"We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision."

FIFA has been accused of overturning Balogun's red card based on "political phone calls" by its former president Sepp Blatter.

US President Donald Trump welcomed the decision to "reverse a great injustice", amid reports the American government applied pressure to FIFA to lift the ban.

FIFA and the White House's World Cup Task Force are yet to comment on those reports, but former FIFA president Blatter believes the organisation has serious questions to answer.

"Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies," a post on Blatter’s X account read.

"If a US President intervenes with the FIFA President - and a player is suddenly cleared before a World Cup knockout match - the question is unavoidable: Quo vadis (where are you going), FIFA?

"Football must never become a playground for political power."

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