The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) announced this Monday that it will challenge the eligibility of the American forward Folarin Balogun for the Round of 16 match of the 2026 World Cup against the United States, taking place tonight at the Lumen Field in Seattle, according to reporting by the AP agency.
In a second statement issued this Monday, the RBFA detailed that it never received a reasoned decision or official explanation from FIFA regarding the procedure followed to lift the player's automatic suspension.
When the Belgian federation requested that information, FIFA treated its request as an appeal, appointed a judge, and only gave him a few hours to formalize it, without providing the document that justified the measure.
FIFA ultimately declared that appeal inadmissible, which allowed Balogun to be eligible to play in the round of 16 match. The RBFA stated that, in the absence of explanations, it is compelled to challenge the forward's eligibility regardless of the sporting outcome, and expressed that it is "deeply concerned about the events," committing to uphold the principles of "ethics, fair competition, and the interests of football."
The origin of the controversy is the direct red card received by Balogun in the 64th minute of the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1 in San Francisco. The Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, after reviewing it with VAR, sent off the AS Monaco forward for an accidental stamp on the ankle of Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemoviฤ.
On Sunday, FIFA's Disciplinary Committee announced the suspension of the sanction, invoking Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code, which allows for the total or partial suspension of a disciplinary measure. Belgium argues that this decision directly contradicts Article 10.5 of the 2026 World Cup Competition Regulations and Article 66.4 of the Disciplinary Code, which establish an automatic suspension for the next match following a red card.
The scandal intensified when President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday from the Oval Office that he personally called the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, to request a review of the expulsion. According to sources cited by CNN, that call took place on July 3, two days before FIFA's announcement.
"One thing is to sanction someone for a match, but how do you sanction someone for a match that hasn't even been played? It's very unfair. You can't do that. So yes, I requested a review from FIFA," Trump stated.
The president also questioned referee Claus: "This referee is a bit suspicious, if you look into his past. I don't want to say that because I don't like to create controversy, but it's very suspicious."
On Sunday, he had already posted on Truth Social: "Thank you to FIFA for doing the right thing and reversing a great injustice."
The UEFA reacted strongly to FIFA's decision, labeling it as "incomprehensible, unprecedented, and unjustifiable" and warning that "a red line has been crossed" that compromises the equal treatment of all teams in the tournament.
Balogun is the top scorer for the United States in the 2026 World Cup, with four goals in four matches, including a historic hat-trick in the debut against Paraguay, the first by an American in a World Cup since Bert Patenaude in 1930.
This is the first red card revoked in the 2026 World Cup and the first documented instance of a U.S. president intervening with FIFA to overturn a sanction against a player from their national team, which has opened an unprecedented debate about the independence of the governing body of world football in the face of political pressures.
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