"Any political leader could potentially pick up the phone and say there's a precedent for changing a punishment awarded to a player — and I think it's extremely dangerous." That's UEFA vice-president Laura McAllister, and she's not wrong. What started as a controversial red card has turned into a full-blown governance crisis for world football.
The chain of events is damning in its simplicity. Folarin Balogun was sent off in the U.S.' round-of-32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, triggering an automatic one-match ban for the round-of-16 clash with Belgium. Donald Trump called Gianni Infantino personally, described the red card as a "great injustice," and asked for the ban to be reviewed. FIFA's independent disciplinary committee then suspended the ban. Balogun started against Belgium. The U.S. lost 4-1 anyway.
The political neutrality case is building fast
Now 72 Members of the European Parliament have written directly to the 27 heads of EU football associations, demanding they push FIFA to investigate its own decision-making process. This follows a separate letter from 50 MEPs on June 29, which alleged "repeated breaches" of FIFA's political neutrality obligations — including Infantino awarding Donald Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December 2025.
The legal ground MEPs are standing on is solid. Article 4(2) of the FIFA Statutes states FIFA must remain neutral in matters of politics. Article 15 of the FIFA Code of Ethics requires all football officials to maintain political neutrality, with serious sanctions available for violations. The Norwegian Football Federation has already called for an investigation. Now the MEPs want European associations to join that chorus collectively.
Infantino's defence — that "FIFA's judicial bodies are independent" and he merely explained the process to Trump during their call — is the kind of answer that sounds clean until you ask why the U.S. president was calling the FIFA president about a specific disciplinary case in the first place.
The precedent problem
UEFA called the ban suspension "incomprehensible" and said it "crossed a red line." Non-profit organisation FairSquare has announced it will file a formal complaint to the International Olympic Committee over Infantino's conduct. The pressure is now coming from multiple directions simultaneously — MEPs, UEFA, national federations, civil society groups.
McAllister framed the wider danger clearly: the moment a political phone call becomes an accepted route to reversing on-pitch punishments, the integrity of every future disciplinary decision is compromised. For any match involving a nation with a leader willing to make that call, the question stops being "what did the referee decide?" and starts being "who has the better relationship with Infantino?"
FIFA's disciplinary credibility — already questioned in numerous past controversies — just took a hit it will struggle to quantify. And Belgium, who lost the appeal before the match and then watched Balogun start in a 4-1 win for the U.S.? They're owed an answer nobody at FIFA seems willing to give.
