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The Folarin Balogun Situation Stinks All Around
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It’ll be USA vs. Belgium in the World Cup Round of 16 on Monday night, and striker Folarin Balogun is eligible to play after a shock ruling from FIFA.
This is how they explained it in a statement:
“By operation of Article 27 FDC, the implementation of the automatic match suspension for USA player Folarin Balogun is suspended for a probationary period of one (1) year.”
Balogun had been shown a red card in the 64th minute of the Round of 32 victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which USA went on to win 2-0.
So the red card stands, but the suspension has been deferred. This is what article 27 states, in part:
“The judicial body may decide to fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure… By suspending the implementation of the sanction, the judicial body subjects the person sanctioned to a probationary period of one to four years.”
There wasn’t much explanation beyond that, and the details are a little dense, but the situation was totally fugazi to begin with. The ref didn’t whistle anything in real time, then VAR called down for a review. Balogun was making a short diagonal run, fighting for position, trying to get in front, and the defender contacted him from behind. It turned into a janky-looking 50/50, and Balogun’s right foot came down on the guy’s ankle. Typical bang-bang play. It looked a lot worse in slow motion than it was in real time, and it wasn’t malicious or nasty or anything like that. It should have been given as a yellow card and then everybody moves on with their lives:
As a result, the U.S. had to play a man down for 30 minutes against Bosnia and Herzegovina and protect a 1-0 lead, which the players did incredibly well despite the bogus change of momentum.
In suspending the red card, FIFA righted a wrong, but did it in a way that pissed off the rest of the world, and made it seem like we were getting some sort of preferential treatment. This is something that rarely happens, and there’s no mechanism for appealing red cards to begin with, which caused quite the uproar. Then you throw in reports that President Trump called FIFA and people got extra mad about that. Whether Trump’s involvement actually had an effect or not is largely irrelevant because people are going to believe what they want to believe, and they’ll believe that FIFA caved to a sitting president of a host country. Most of the whining, as expected, is coming from Europe.
Not that we necessarily care what the Euros think, but they’ve got a fair gripe here, and they’ve created a win/win situation for themselves. If we lose to Belgium, we’re out, and “football has prevailed,” as they say. If we win, it’s now illegitimate, and they put an asterisk on the U.S. run, however far it goes.
So it kind of stinks for the American players, because they didn’t ask for this, but find themselves in a Catch 22 nonetheless. They’ve earned a lot of international respect for the way they’ve played at this tournament, and now people are going to be against them for something they had no involvement in.
The situation reeks all around. The red card was bogus, and the reversal feels somewhat bogus as well. We’ll see how it plays out on Monday night. All the players can really do is go out and play their best game and let the chips fall as they may.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com