‘No alternative but to challenge the player’s eligibility for the upcoming match’: Belgian FA willing to put more pressure on FIFA over Folarin Balogun debacle

‘No alternative but to challenge the player’s eligibility for the upcoming match’: Belgian FA willing to put more pressure on FIFA over Folarin Balogun debacle The Belgian FA has, understandably, come down hard on FIFA over its decision to suspend the suspension of Folarin Balogun. In a statement release via their website, the RBFA has said the following: After learning through media reports of FIFA’s decision to lift the automatic suspension of player Balogun, the RBFA sent a letter to FIFA requesting a copy of the decision, an explanation of the process that had been followed, and setting out its position regarding the applicable regulations. As its only response, FIFA sent a letter to the RBFA stating that it considered this correspondence to constitute an appeal, that a judge had been appointed, and that the RBFA had only a few hours to complete that appeal. No information whatsoever was provided by FIFA. For an appeal to be admissible, FIFA’s own regulations state that the reasoned decision must first have been communicated to the appellant. While the RBFA was merely seeking legitimate explanations, FIFA itself created an appeal and immediately ensured that it would be declared inadmissible. Furthermore, as has already been widely reported, FIFA appear to have changed the rules midway through the World Cup. Prior to the tournament, a presentation was circulated which contained a slide that stated that a red card would result in an automatic suspension of the player who receives it. Yet, according to RBFA, FIFA removed this slide: Furthermore, during the match coordination meeting, FIFA deliberately removed the section concerning the automatic suspension of players from its presentation. This topic had nonetheless been part of all such meetings before each of the previous four matches. The RBFA questioned FIFA, both orally and in writing, about the reasons for this change, yet once again received no response. Clearly, FIFA was not prepared for the backlash that this decision would cause, and from how they are dealing with the situation, the RBFA are well within their rights to put pressure on the organisation to provide a satisfactory answer. As part of the options the RBFA are considering, one is to appeal the eligibility of Balogun for the upcoming game. Sadly, Balogun has become a victim in a political decision on behalf of FIFA. The rules have now been changed, and as every national team manager is saying, they are all none the wiser as to what the process actually is. This is why the actions of the RBFA are so important, as they said so themselves: Regardless of the sporting outcome of this match, the RBFA is deeply concerned by the course of events and will continue to fight in the coming hours, days and months in defence of the fundamental principles of ethics, fair competition, and the interests of football as a whole. What should have been an exciting clash between two evenly matched teams has now turned into a mess that is has been created by FIFA. Neither Belgium nor the USMNT can do much about this, given that neither appear to have been involved in the final decision by FIFA. Hopefully the game will live up to expectations, but a Belgian defeat will certainly not sit well with the majority of football fans outside of the USA. FIFA itself has brought its own reputation into disrepute once again. GBeNeFN  |  Ben Jackson