MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. FIFA has lost credibility amid its decision to rescind US forward Folarin Balogun’s red card at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Vyacheslav Koloskov, former vice president of FIFA and an honorary member of the organization, told TASS on Monday.
Following a video review, Balogun was slapped with a red card after he appeared to drive his cleat into the ankle of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Tarik Muharemovic in their match during the Round of 32 at the world championship. The Royal Belgian Football Association has appealed FIFA’s decision to overturn Balogun’s red-card disqualification ahead of Monday's US-Belgium Last 16 match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Reuters news agency reported earlier in the day citing its sources that Balogun's red-card ban was scrapped after US President Donald Trump personally urged FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review the case.
"FIFA hasn’t been independent or autonomous for a long time now. To be frank, it’s as if [FIFA President Gianni] Infantino never left Donald Trump's office, where he presented him with some kind of gold medal and asked him to make a farce out of the World Cup. It’s a bunch of baloney," Koloskov emphasized.
"Clearly, FIFA's reputation has been tarnished. They’re doing all this to cash in, with actual football taking a back seat," he continued.
"Forty-eight participants in the World Cup and TV timeouts - football has turned into a commercial tool. Thus, we see FIFA losing and losing its credibility," Koloskov added.
Earlier, FIFA said in a statement that "USA striker Folarin Balogun will be available to play in the co-host’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 16 match against Belgium on Monday [July 6] at Seattle Stadium."
However, the European governing body of football, UEFA (the Union of European Football Federations) issued a statement later in the day stating that FIFA had crossed a "red line."
"Yesterday’s decision to suspend for a probationary period of a year the implementation of the one-match automatic suspension following the red card issued to the player Folarin Balogun crossed a red line," the UEFA’s statement reads.
"Football, like any other sports, relies on rules, which are the basis for fair, honest and transparent competition. Sometimes rules are open to interpretation. In this case not," according to the statement. "A minimum automatic suspension of one match following a red card is not a discretionary option and does not require the decision of a competent body to be enacted. It is a principle embedded in regulations, which cannot be made subject to exceptions, let alone in the middle of a tournament where several other players have been in the same situation and regularly served their suspension."
"When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined. Equally, such decision creates a precedent in the ongoing tournament, where similar situations will now require an equal treatment, to the detriment of the competition."
"We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision," UEFA snapped back in response to FIFA’s decision ahead of the Belgium-US match on July 6.
Belgium and the United States will square off tonight at Seattle Stadium.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States between June 11 and July 19. The matches are staged in 16 cities across the three countries. This is be the first FIFA World Cup featuring 48 teams instead of the previous 32-team format.