MEPs pressure FIFA after Trump intervention in Balogun ban

Fifty European Parliament members have formally urged FIFA’s ethics committee to investigate the sudden reversal of a World Cup red card issued to United States striker Folarin Balogun. The June 29 letter escalates a growing institutional crisis following a complaint by human rights group FairSquare, which alleges FIFA president Gianni Infantino breached rules on political neutrality by dealing with Trump. The US president admitted he personally intervened on behalf of Balogun and the American World Cup co-hosts.

Balogun received a red card during the US round-of-32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina for a challenge on Tarik Muharemovic. FIFA’s disciplinary committee then took the unusual step of suspending the standard one-match ban for a year. This procedural pivot allowed the Monaco forward to feature in the Americans’ subsequent last-16 elimination by Belgium.

The internal mechanics of that decision are now under severe scrutiny. The disciplinary committee chair, Mohammad Al Kamali, made the ruling alone. In a departure from established precedent, Al Kamali had never been the sole arbiter in any previously published disciplinary cases. FIFA has offered no public explanation for why the ban was lifted.

Balogun told CBS the fallout created a difficult environment for the squad. "My 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, and I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves, because it’s something that is so unique," he said. He still denies the tackle warranted a dismissal, adding: "When something’s not intentional it should never be a red card, so it was just an unfortunate situation, and I think it put a lot more pressure on us than we needed."

The controversy now threatens to ensnare multiple international bodies. Because Infantino has sat on the International Olympic Committee since 2020, FairSquare filed a parallel complaint with the IOC on Tuesday. The group claims there are five clear breaches of the Olympic Charter and the IOC’s code of ethics regarding political neutrality. It also cited "prima facie" evidence of two further serious breaches, specifically highlighting the Balogun affair.

For European stakeholders, the intervention raises fundamental questions about the independence of sports governance from state power. The Norwegian football federation already wrote to FIFA’s ethics committee last month demanding a review of FairSquare's December complaint. The direct intervention by 50 MEPs signals that European public institutions are no longer willing to treat the episode as a routine sporting dispute, viewing it instead as a critical test case for institutional integrity.