Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Monday, June 7, he questioned the football governing body’s decision to suspend US striker Folarin Balogun’s red card ban.
Sources told AFP US President Donald Trump had called FIFA’s current chief Gianni Infantino to ask FIFA to review Balogun’s automatic one-game suspension.
The 25-year-old is now free to face Belgium in the last 16 of the World Cup later on Monday, with his ban suspended for a year with no explanation given from FIFA for the move.
“Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls,” scandal-hit Blatter said on X. “They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies. If a US President intervenes with the FIFA President — and a player is suddenly cleared before a World Cup knockout match — the question is unavoidable: Quo vadis (Where are you going), FIFA? Football must never become a playground for political power,” the 90-year-old added.
Blatter has often criticised Infantino, telling German newspaper Bild in February FIFA had become a “dictatorship”.
Blatter resigned as FIFA head in 2015 following a corruption crisis and was banned from football by its ethics committee.
European football’s governing body UEFA, Belgium coach Rudi Garcia and ex-Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp have all slammed FIFA’s decision regarding Balogun’s red card.