Seventy-two members of the European Parliament want answers — and they want them from Gianni Infantino. In a formal letter sent Wednesday, the lawmakers pressed European football association presidents to back an investigation into whether FIFA's president was directly involved in overturning Folarin Balogun's one-match ban after a phone call from Donald Trump.
The suspension of Balogun's red card — handed out during the USA's round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina — was lifted days after Trump confirmed he had personally called Infantino to request a review. Balogun, the Americans' top scorer at the tournament, was then free to play against Belgium. The U.S. lost that match anyway and were eliminated, but the damage to FIFA's credibility as a neutral institution didn't go with them.
"Crossed a red line"
UEFA didn't mince words. The governing body of European football called the reversal "unjustifiable" and said it "crossed a red line," warning that when rules aren't enforced consistently, "the integrity of the game is at stake." That's a direct shot at FIFA from the continent that still bankrolls a disproportionate chunk of the sport's commercial value.
Infantino insists he played no part in the disciplinary decision itself. His statement claimed he told Trump the matter was being handled by "independent judicial bodies" and that he would not interfere. FIFA cited a clause giving it broad discretion to suspend disciplinary measures — a clause that, conveniently, had rarely if ever been applied this visibly before a head of state got involved.
The optics are what they are. A sitting president calls. The ban disappears. The president of FIFA says it was a coincidence.
This isn't the first letter, and it won't be the last
Wednesday's letter is actually the second the European Parliament has fired off in recent days. Last week, 50 MEPs wrote to Infantino and FIFA council members to support an ethics complaint over the FIFA Peace Prize — awarded to Trump in December. Infantino defended that decision in a Sky News interview, saying of Trump: "objectively, he deserves it."
The combination of the Peace Prize and the red card reversal has handed FIFA's critics a coherent narrative: that Infantino has drawn FIFA into a political relationship with the Trump administration in ways that contradict the organization's own statutes, which explicitly require it to "remain neutral in matters of politics."
Whether any investigation actually materializes depends on whether enough national associations are willing to push for it — UEFA's statement suggests the appetite exists in Europe. But FIFA investigations into FIFA have a long history of going nowhere fast. The lawmakers know that. They're building a paper trail either way.
