Folarin Balogun, a US forward, received a straight red card in the World Cup round-of-32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina on July 2, 2026, triggering an automatic one-match suspension [1, 2, 3]. After a phone call from US President Donald Trump to FIFA President Gianni Infantino between July 2 and 7, FIFA suspended Balogun's suspension for 12 months, allowing him to play in the last-16 match against Belgium on July 7 [1, 4, 5, 6, 3]. The US lost that match 4-1, with reports suggesting the controversy may have affected the team emotionally [1, 4, 7, 3].
The Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) expressed strong objections to FIFA's decision. NFF President Lise Klaveness has called for Infantino to admit the ruling was an error influenced by outside political pressure, saying, "We need our leader in FIFA to say that this was an error" and warning, "When you bend a rule like this, you’re on a slippery slope that will put the whole game at risk" [4, 5, 8]. Klaveness added, "First of all, it should not have happened. It is very important now to have honest communication around it. We all know that this verdict was influenced from external forces and did not have the proper process" [8].
Reports indicate the decision to suspend Balogun’s ban was made solely by Mohammad al-Kamali, chairman of FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee, without consulting other committee members [5, 6, 7]. The NFF board announced in late July its intention to consider filing a formal ethics complaint against FIFA President Infantino over the ban suspension and Trump’s involvement [2, 4, 5]. FairSquare, a human rights NGO, has already filed complaints alleging FIFA breached political neutrality, citing both the suspension and the awarding of a FIFA Peace Prize to Trump [2, 4, 3].
Today, August 6, 2026, the NFF board will meet to decide whether to formally submit the ethics complaint and whether to combine it with their previous complaint related to the Peace Prize awarded to Trump [2, 9, 10, 6, 7, 3]. The International Olympic Committee might also investigate since Infantino is an IOC member and the charter prohibits government interference affecting members’ actions or votes [1, 4].
