Editorial: Right and Wrong and True

I will preface this that these are my own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of my colleagues here at Prost International. Folarin Balogun’s red card against Bosnia-Herzegovina was harsh. There was contact, but it was unintentional and did not rise to the level of serious foul play.

As for the play itself and VAR intervention, and Brendan Hunt did a good job pointing this out on Apple News’s “After the Whistle” podcast, referee Raphael Claus could have given Balogun a yellow card and could have fallen back on that after VAR. However, the provisions when it concerns an incident that could lead to a straight red card mean that it’s either a red card or not and ‘not’ in this case meant no card at all and that would’ve been a controversy ipso facto.

There should be/should have been an appeal process for the USA to appeal to have the red card rescinded. Instead, we have a President of the United States apparently contacting his buddy, the President of FIFA, to “review” it. The result is that Balogun’s suspension is suspended (the red card still stands) and he will be able to play Monday against Belgium (5pm PT, Fox/Telemundo).

There has been similar, for lack of a better term, chicanery to allow a player to play in the World Cup despite a suspension supposed to preclude him from player. That was applied to Cristiano Ronaldo in 2022 after a red card against Republic of Ireland that resulted in a three-match ban, Two of those matches got deferred so Ronaldo could play in the opening matches for Portugal at the World Cup.

Argentina’s Nicolás Otamendi and Ecuador’s Moisés Caicedo in April had one-game bans deferred for red cards in qualifiers, also allowing them to be available for World Cup openers.

Brazil’s Garrincha was ejected from a 1962 semifinal but allowed to play in the final against Chile after political pressure. Brazil would win that semifinal and then the Cup.

There is that precedent, but not the precedent that a red card suspension being suspended during the tournament as cards were not a thing until after the 1966 World Cup. Article 27 comes off like a loophole to skirt controversy while carrying the unintended consequence of putting the game into disrepute.

The delicate way to put this is that right result was achieved through process that could not be more wrong. The view of many, fairly or unfairly, is that President Trump’s actions set a dangerous precedent that one can get out of jail based on who is friends with the current FIFA President and that is bad optics both for the sport and the world as a whole. As a result, also fairly or unfairly, a not insignificant number of fans will now root for Belgium to win in Seattle.

After the USA had built up so much goodwill thanks to many of its citizens who through their hospitality allowed visitors to see past the set ways of its leadership, it could all get unraveled by the actions of said leadership. It is unfair on Balogun who is one of the best strikers the USA has seen on the men’s side and none of this is his fault, nor that of US Soccer.

Indeed, some contended that one of the reasons the World Cup has been a success so far is because we thought President Trump had not paid that much attention to it.

It’s okay to have conflicting views on all of this. This reporter does as well. Folarin Balogun was unjustly sent off, but was willing to accept his punishment. The way that sending off has been suspended is also unjust due to the lack of transparency and the complicated way FIFA (and the White House) have gone about it.

What’s not okay is to give into cynicism and feel nothing will ever be done. Those who believe in the good of the game need to come together to solve the problems before the game from greedy owners who want a country club-type of Super League, to how to handle fan misbehavior, to racism in the sport, and overly political actions by entities in and out of FIFA. Politics will always exist in sport whether we like it or not, but we don’t have to learn to love it.

What’s done has been done, and now we have to find a way through it. No one person has all the answers, but it would be nice of some great people could get together to figure out some of them. That can be true as well.