Folarin Balogun will start for the United States against Belgium in Seattle on Monday night after Fifa suspended his one-match ban — a reversal that arrived hours after Donald Trump personally lobbied football’s governing body to clear the striker, according to sources with knowledge of the intervention.
Balogun was sent off in the 78th minute of the co-hosts’ 2-1 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 32, a straight red for a studs-up challenge that, under Fifa’s competition regulations, carries an automatic one-game suspension. That should have ruled him out of the last-16 tie against Belgium at Lumen Field. Instead, Fifa announced on Sunday that the ban had been set aside, and the Guardian has been told the US president made three calls to the organisation from Wednesday onward to push the matter through.
An intervention without precedent
Fifa offered no public justification for lifting the suspension. Its disciplinary code allows appeals, but a straight red for serious foul play is among the hardest sanctions to overturn, and the governing body did not cite a procedural error, mistaken identity or any of the narrow grounds on which such bans are usually reduced.
What it did not dispute is the involvement of the White House. The United States is co-hosting this World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, and a sitting head of state lobbying Fifa to reverse a disciplinary ruling in favour of the home nation is, by any measure, unprecedented. Football’s governing body has long guarded — at least in principle — the separation between political authority and the running of the game, a principle it has cited when suspending federations for government interference.
The Belgian FA reacted with open anger. In a statement, it said it was “astonished” by the decision and questioned how a punishment applied on the pitch could be undone off it without explanation. Belgian officials are understood to be weighing a formal request for the reasoning behind the reversal, though with kick-off looming there is little practical remedy available to them.
What it means on the pitch
The sporting stakes are considerable. Balogun has been the tournament’s revelation for the US, scoring three goals in three starts and giving Mauricio Pochettino’s side a genuine focal point after years of searching for a reliable centre-forward. His movement stretched Bosnia’s back line before the red card, and his absence would have forced the US into a blunter, more reactive shape against a Belgium side that still carries Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku.
For Belgium, the recall reshapes the game entirely. Roberto Martínez’s defenders had spent the buildup preparing for a US attack without its most dangerous outlet; now they must again account for Balogun’s runs in behind. The psychological swing matters too. A US squad that feared losing its top scorer instead walks out with him restored — and with the sense, fair or not, that events have broken their way.
The US have not reached a World Cup quarter-final since 2002. Beating a Belgium team ranked among the world’s best would represent their deepest run in a generation, and doing it with the striker who has carried them would only sharpen the achievement. Or, depending on the result, the controversy.
A shadow over the result
Whatever happens at Lumen Field, the outcome now sits under a cloud. If the US win with Balogun scoring or setting up a goal, the question of whether he should have been on the pitch will follow the result through the rest of the tournament. If they lose, the intervention becomes a footnote — but a damaging one for Fifa, which will have expended credibility for nothing.
The deeper concern is precedent. Fifa’s authority rests on the idea that its rules apply uniformly, from qualifiers in front of empty stands to knockout ties watched by hundreds of millions. A suspension lifted after pressure from a host government invites every future complaint, every aggrieved federation, to ask why they were held to a standard the United States was not.
Fifa has weathered questions about its independence before, but rarely with a paper trail this direct or a beneficiary this obvious. Balogun will play on Monday. The harder reckoning — over how the decision was made, and what it says about who the rules are for — will outlast the final whistle.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
387 articles published
