With the 2026 FIFA World Cup nearing its end, the tournament has been one which will be remembered more for its controversies than genuine footballing action.
With a litany of incidents that were deemed controversial, one that literally took the cake was the reversal of USA striker Folarin Balogun’s red card ahead of their Round of 16 match vs Belgium.
During USA’s 2-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32, the Monaco forward committed a foul on Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic, for which he was sent off. Under normal circumstances, it would have ruled him out of the match against Belgium. But the involvement of US president Donald Trump provided a big assist for him as the ban was lifted by the FIFA Committee.
“My initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team, but when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy, and I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves, because it’s something that is so unique,” said Balogun while talking to CBS about the incident.
“But the closer we got to the game I tried to just focus as best as I could, but it was difficult. A lot of outside noise, and that’s hard to avoid. I was in shock. It wasn’t even a tackle. I was totally in shock, I think you could see my reaction, but I just had to accept the decision and just try to be there for my team,” he added.
Due to this unprecedented incident, Balogun had become a hot topic of debate as a result with the Belgium’s football association, UEFA as well multiple former players and critics arguing that overturning a red card suspension due to a direct political intervention would undermine the integrity of the tournament and harm its reputation.
Ultimately Balogun playing the match did not matter as Belgium thrashed USA 4-1 and eliminated the hosts from the tournament.