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Posted on 07/06/2026 5:25:23 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Uefa has strongly criticised Fifa's shock decision not to uphold Folarin Balogun's automatic ban at this World Cup, calling it "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable".
United States striker Balogun, who was sent off against Bosnia-Herzegovina, should have served a suspension for the last-16 tie against Belgium (Tuesday 01:00 BST).
But Fifa opted not to enforce an immediate sanction on the 25-year-old, meaning the co-hosts' leading goalscorer will be available to play.
Uefa said that intervening to effectively cancel a suspension at a tournament "crossed a red line".
On Sunday, President Trump thanked Fifa for "reversing a great injustice".
The Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said in a statement that it is "astonished" Balogun will not be banned.
On Monday, Belgium's foreign minister Maxime Prevot said: "If a phone call is really the reason for this incomprehensible decision, it would be a blatant violation of the most basic rules of football and sport."
Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who was replaced by Infantino in 2016 after a corruption scandal, wrote on X that "football must never become a playground for political power".
Uefa said that an automatic suspension of one match "is not a discretionary option" and it is "a principle embedded in regulations".
"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," Uefa said in a statement.
"Equally, such a decision creates a precedent in the ongoing tournament, where similar situations will now require an equal treatment, to the detriment of the competition.
"We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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I started to read...then saw the source was the BBC.
Sorry, I’ll await a real news source.
But FIFA already delayed the three-game suspension of Ronaldo in this tournament, and they broke the rules in this one by using slow-mo. The red card penalty itself is ridiculous. Someone can flop and act like their ankles broken and a guy gets a red card. Then the ankle faker plays the rest of the game, but the guy who didn’t hurt him has to still miss the next game? This is not a serious sport.
It’s soccer.
A girl’s kickball game.
The Belgian Football Association has filed an appeal of it’s own to reverse the original suspension appeal.
So it ain’t over.
Nobody drama queens like the europeans.
They're even worse than NBA players.
SUCH BULL SHYTE! Did he injure anyone? No. These people are crazy.
I don’t think much of soccer or watch it very often. The call on the field that kicked him out of a ‘sudden death’ match was terrible and left the US without it’s best player AND 1 man short for the remaining portion of the game. The call was overdone, and then it was REVIEWED, and they kept the red card.
The entire episode looked like a ‘rigged’ match were the referee was imposing himself on the tournament to eliminate the American team. When the re-affirmed the terrible call, I was a bit shocked. Further, when the game went on, the other team committed fouls (yes more than one) that were clearly deliberate and dangerous. The referee didn’t issue a red card for them.
The integrity of the game begins without fair officiating. That was absent in the ‘events’ that led up to Belgium playing the US.
LeBron must be a huge soccer fan.
USA is kicking ass. They don’t like us and they certainly don’t want the USA team to win. It’s pretty obvious.
All you have to do is look back to the last winter Olympics at what happened to the Americans in pairs ice skating.
Thst was the screw job of all time.
Exactly right. This is why I struggle to watch it, and why I think it will never be a mainstream sport in the U.S. The constant flopping and grimacing and grabbing the knee/leg/ankle is beyond ridiculous. How can you respect players who constantly seek advantage through faking injuries/fouls? It is a form of cheating, and it is hard to respect a sport where that is not only tolerated, but seems to be considered part of the game.
Another annoying thing, as a fan of AMERICAN sports, how hard is it for the officials to stop the clock during the game so we don’t have that ridiculous spectacle of “extra time” at the end when you don’t really know for sure if the game is over.
I watched the end of Mexico/England and the announcers and screen graphic were all saying “11 minutes” of extra time. Well, it still went beyond 11 minutes and nobody knew for sure it was over until the refs just blew the whistle and called it.
I can’t imagine a football or basketball game (unless the scoreboard is malfunctioning) where nobody knows for sure how much time is left and the ref just randomly blows the whistle to stop the game in the middle of the action.
It’s even worse. The call on the field was no card. The review didn’t uphold the ref’s call. The review overturned the no-card call and issued the red card. That ruling was based on slow motion and still shots, which runs against the normal VAR protocol for reviewing cards for violent fouls. They are supposed to review by looking at full speed replays only. The slow-mom and still shots made it look far worse than it was
I’ve always contended one of the biggest reasons America will never fully embrace soccer is because the players are so fragile.....or act as if they are anyway.
I’ll have to admit, I’ve watched way more world cup than I ever thought I would.
Entertaining, but I’m already sick of seeing grown men fall to the ground writhing in faux pain every time two of ‘em as much as bump in to each other.
It’s ridiculous, and compared to American football these guys look like a bunch of Nancy’s.
Has anyone noticed the ridiculousness of quoting Sepp Blatter on the integrity of FIFA?
True, but all sports have their issues. Why is it possible to simply run out the game in football if you have the ball with two minutes to play and the other team has no timeouts? Why should the clock be running when the ball is not in play? In basketball, why should a player who is being well defended and about to lose possession allowed to call a timeout and keep the ball?
The timing thing in soccer certainly is odd, but it’s one of those traditional things that dates back to the start of the sport, when it was just easier for the ref to let them play for 45 minutes and blow the whistle for half time or full time. I believe. Stoppage time was added later to account for cases of intentional time wasting (especially by a team holding the lead). There just is no real appetite among either those in charge of the game or its fan base to change the timing of the game.
It’s not all leagues. It’s generally not tolerated in the English Premier League, they play hard and fast. Doing a fake dive in the penalty box can get you a red card.
Other leagues do consider the ‘acting’ as part of the game, which doesn’t translate well to our culture.
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