A formal complaint has been submitted to the International Olympic Committee alleging that FIFA president Gianni Infantino breached rules on political neutrality — five clear violations, plus prima facie evidence of two more, according to human rights group FairSquare.
The flashpoint is the Folarin Balogun affair. The US striker received a one-match ban that was subsequently suspended by FIFA's disciplinary committee, allowing him to feature in the United States' last-16 clash against Belgium. That decision came in the wake of a phone call between President Donald Trump and Infantino. FIFA's official line is that its committees operate with complete independence. The timeline makes that claim difficult to sell.
The committee chair who went it alone
The Times reported that disciplinary committee chair Mohammad Al Kamali made the call to suspend Balogun's ban unilaterally — a decision-making approach with no precedent in any previously published FIFA disciplinary case. FIFA has offered no explanation for that, either.
Infantino has been an IOC member since 2020, which is what opens this particular legal avenue for FairSquare. The Olympic Charter and the IOC's code of ethics carry specific obligations around political neutrality. FairSquare's complaint argues those obligations have been repeatedly violated.
This isn't their first attempt to get someone to pay attention. They filed a complaint with FIFA's own ethics committee back in December — and have heard almost nothing since, beyond an acknowledgment that it was received. Norway's football federation then wrote to the same committee. Fifty members of the European Parliament followed on 29 June with their own letter urging action.
Pressure building, accountability absent
That's a national federation, half a parliament, and an international rights group all pointing at the same problem — and still no substantive response from FIFA's internal processes. The IOC route is essentially FairSquare trying a different door because the first one has stayed firmly shut.
Whether the IOC acts is another matter entirely. But the optics for Infantino are worsening by the week. A World Cup on US soil, a presidential phone call, a mysteriously reversed ban, and now an ethics complaint lodged with the one body that sits above FIFA's own governance structure. Fifty MEPs don't write joint letters over nothing.
