During the 2026 World Cup, FIFA suspended the implementation of a one-game suspension that US national team player Folarin Balogun had received after he was sent off in a round of 32 match victory against the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team for a foul on Tarik Muharemović. Balogun's suspension was delayed for a probationary period of one year under the Article 27 authority of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. United States president Donald Trump had directly called FIFA president Gianni Infantino asking him to review the red card decision. The decision allowed Balogun to participate in the United States' Round of 16 match against Belgium despite the red card remaining in effect. Belgium won the match 4–1, with Balogun playing almost the entire match.
Background
Folarin Balogun entered the 2026 FIFA World Cup as the United States men's national soccer team's starting striker after being named to the nation's 26-player squad. On June 12 in his World Cup debut and the team's opening group stage match against Paraguay, Balogun scored twice in the 4–1 opener, being named Player of the Match. The game marked the first time an American had a multi-goal World Cup match in 96 years, since the 1930 FIFA World Cup in Uruguay, when Bert Patenaude scored the first hat-trick in World Cup history, which had also been against Paraguay. In the following game against Australia, he won a second back-to-back Player of the Match award as the United States secured the top spot in Group D.
Red card incident
Balogun scored the opening goal in the 2–0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team in the round of 32, matching Landon Donovan for the second-most goals scored by an American in a single FIFA World Cup, with three, trailing only Patenaude's four goals in 1930. However, later in the game, he received a red card. In the 61st minute, Balogun stepped on the ankle of Tarik Muharemović, without injuring him, when the two players were challenging for the ball. The referee Raphael Claus did not call a foul on the field, but the VAR Juan Soto called for an on-field review for a red card. After reviewing the slow motion replays, Claus sent off Balogun for serious foul play. This made Balogun only the fourth World Cup player to both score a goal and receive a red card in the same match, most recently by Zinedine Zidane in 2006, following his headbutt in that final. This initially caused his exclusion from the United States' round of 16 match against Belgium.
Reactions to red card
The decision to award Balogun a red card generated widespread outrage from American fans and led to a media campaign with the slogan "Free Flo". The red card decision was widely considered as excessive compared to similar or worse incidents in the tournament that faced lighter or no punishments, most notably, the comparison of an aggressive foul by Lionel Messi against Algeria that did not result in a red, or even yellow, card, which also led many commentators to criticize the general lack of consistency in punishments within the tournament.
According to two sources heard by the New York Times, U.S. officials including commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and Andrew Giuliani provided lawyers for the United States team to appeal the red card. The sources stated that a US team donor had said that the referee's use of a slow-motion replay made the red card invalid, and that Trump had made the same argument later when talking to Infantino. The Laws of the Game do indeed provide that the on-field referee should use normal speed, not slow motion, to determine the severity of an offence. Additionally, former referee Andy Davies stated that the use of slow motion and still images to make recommendations to the on-field referee relating to the issuance of a red card during the review process constituted a breach of VAR protocols.
The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) planned to argue to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that VAR protocols were not followed in issuing Balogun a red card, and notified FIFA of its intention to take such legal action prior to the lifting of the suspension. After Trump expressed doubt about the legitimacy of Claus's red card and professional ethics, the Brazilian Football Confederation expressed support for the referee, who is a member of the organization, and pushed back against any suspicion regarding his professional integrity.
Suspension of red card
Balogun's suspension was later overturned under the Article 27 authority of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. FIFA declined Belgium's appeal to have the effects of Balogun's red card restored, stating that the request was inadmissible. AP News confirmed that president Donald Trump personally called Infantino to review the red card decision. The Guardian reported that Trump made three calls to FIFA lobbying to have the ban lifted. Trump told reporters on July 6 that "All I did, I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul". He also said "that wasn't even an infraction." The Times reported on July 12 that Mohammad al-Kamali, chairman of FIFA's disciplinary committee, made the decision to suspend the red card ban independently, without the involvement of the other 17 members of the committee.
Legitimacy and precedents
FIFA had previously informed The Athletic that national associations could not appeal red cards or the resulting suspensions during the World Cup, prompting suggestions that the disciplinary committee had acted on its own initiative. The FIFA Disciplinary Code states, "Decisions taken by the referee on the field of play are final and may not be reviewed by the FIFA judicial bodies." However, Article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code permits modifications of the consequences of those decisions, including suspensions. It provides FIFA with a wide discretion to fully or partially suspend disciplinary measures. In their appeal, Belgium cited both Article 66.4 and 10.5 of the Regulations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which say that if a player or team official is sent off as a result of a direct or indirect red card (second caution), they will automatically be suspended from their team's subsequent match and that additional sanctions may be applied. However, the regulations also include Article 7.1, which states that "disciplinary infringements are dealt with in compliance with the FIFA Disciplinary Code in force as well as with all relevant circulars and directives". This means that the FIFA Disciplinary Code takes precedent over Article 10.5 although Article 66.4 is still subject to Article 27.
Comparisons were made to Cristiano Ronaldo, who received a red card in Portugal's second-last World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland. He received a three-match ban, but after serving his subsequent match ban, the latter two were suspended by FIFA in an unprecedented decision under Article 27, allowing Ronaldo to compete in Portugal's opening two matches of the 2026 World Cup. Article 27 was also used to waive the suspension of Argentina's Nicolás Otamendi and Ecuador's Moisés Caicedo, both of whom received a red card in their country's final World Cup qualifier. This allowed both of them to appear in their country's first match at the World Cup.
The closest precedent to Balogun's case is the dismissal of Brazil's Garrincha during the 1962 FIFA World Cup semi-final. This was the only other time FIFA suspended the next-match ban mid-tournament. However, before 1970, a sending-off by a referee did not automatically result in a one-match ban, as the rule was not yet implemented, so Garrincha's ban would have had to have been issued by a disciplinary committee. The day after the sending-off, the disciplinary committee decided against suspending Garrincha for the final (which Garrincha played in and Brazil won). They were allegedly influenced by intervention from the President of the host nation, Chile, Jorge Alessandri. Out of the other 189 dismissals at the World Cup, only Garrincha had escaped a suspension before Balogun.
Reactions
Political
Donald Trump welcomed FIFA's decision on Truth Social, writing: "Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!". In response to the controversy, Trump said he "didn't think it was a foul" and added that Balogun "didn't do anything wrong". Trump said that "I thought it was two great athletes who crashed into each other and got entangled ... I think it [the suspension] would have left a big stain. I can't tell them what to do. I don't believe they made the decision; I believe it was the commission that made the decision. And it was the right decision." Trump called the referee "a little bit suspect" and said to "check his past". He said that "I didn't know what the hell a red card is, when I found out I said, 'you've got to be kidding'." Weeks later, it was reported that Trump wants Infantino to be the next secretary-general of the United Nations.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised FIFA's decision, stating that the organization should not perform slow-motion reviews. He joked about bringing up the controversy up "at NATO tomorrow when we're there with the Belgians and everybody else". Ted Cruz, the junior United States Senator from Texas, praised the decision and thanked President Trump for "getting rid" of the red card. Prime Minister of Belgium Bart De Wever mocked FIFA's decision on Instagram, sharing an image of his cat with a speech bubble reading "Red card? I'll play anyway." Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot criticized FIFA's decision, calling it "incomprehensible". The Belgian Socialist Party condemned the decision, calling it a "deplorable image for FIFA, for the soccer World Cup, and for the United States".
European commissioner Glenn Micallef, called the red card suspension the "wrong decision", and asserted that "decisions on sporting rules and sporting matters belong to sporting bodies, not politicians." Yvan Verougstraete, a member of the European Parliament, responded to the decision, arguing that "FIFA must defend fairness, not give the impression of yielding to political pressures." On July 8, MEPs Barry Andrews, Lara Wolters and Niels Fuglsang called the FIFA decision a "disgrace and a perversion of justice" and asked the European national football associations to ask the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate Infantino. On the same day, the Associated Press reported that "[d]ozens of European [Union] lawmakers are gathering support to launch an investigation" of Infantino.
FIFA current and former officials
Infantino said on July 6 that he had talked with Trump about Balogun's red card. He said that "During our conversation, I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA's independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies ... That is how FIFA's system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold." He further rejected criticism by reaffirming that FIFA's disciplinary bodies operate independently and autonomously under the FIFA Disciplinary Code, emphasizing that their decisions are based solely on the applicable rules and the facts of each case, and that their independence must be protected from any external political or public influence. FIFA's Appeals Committee rejected Belgium's challenge to Balogun's eligibility for the World Cup round of 16, ruling the Royal Belgian Football Association had no standing to appeal as it was not a party to the original disciplinary proceedings.
The chairperson of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee issued a statement explaining the decision, confirming that the red card shown to Balogun during the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina had not been overturned. FIFA stated that the committee had upheld the automatic one-match suspension resulting from the sending-off, but used Article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code to suspend the implementation of the ban for a one-year probationary period. The suspension would only be enforced if Balogun committed another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during that period. The committee also confirmed that Balogun was fined USD 40,000, with half attributed to the violation concerning player misconduct during the celebration and half to the offence relating to the red-card suspension. The United States Soccer Federation was declared jointly liable for payment of the fine under Article 6.5 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.