Trump Called FIFA. Then the Red Card on a USMNT Star Vanished. Belgium Is Furious.

Folarin Balogun stepped on an opponent’s ankle Wednesday night. The referee showed a red card. Standard procedure says he sits out the next game. That was the rule until Donald Trump picked up the phone.

FIFA did something it almost never does. It suspended the suspension. Balogun will play Monday night against Belgium in Seattle. The U.S. can reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002 if they win. But the decision has set off a firestorm that reaches all the way to the Belgian prime minister’s cat.

(Yes, really. The cat’s Instagram account posted a caption that read: “Red card? I’m still going to play!”)

How we got here

Balogun was born in New York, raised in London and plays his club soccer in France. He chose the U.S. over England and Nigeria, and that decision has paid off. He leads the American attack with three World Cup goals. He’s the kind of center-forward the U.S. has been looking for for years.

Then came the tackle on Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic. Replays showed Balogun’s movement looked clumsy more than malicious. But the referee saw a red card offense, and under FIFA rules, that meant an automatic one-game ban. No appeals process exists for one-game suspensions. That’s how it has always worked.

Mauricio Pochettino, the U.S. coach, called the initial call completely unfair. He had a point. The likely replacement, Ricardo Pepi, hasn’t scored in four World Cup games. The U.S. attack runs through Balogun’s ability to hold the ball and finish chances. Losing him against a team like Belgium could have ended the run.

The Trump factor

Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The two have a well-documented relationship. Infantino has been a regular at the White House during World Cup preparations. He gave Trump a FIFA Peace Prize at the World Cup draw in December, an award nobody else has received before or since.

FIFA cited article 27 of its disciplinary code, which lets a judicial body suspend a disciplinary measure. The rule doesn’t specify which cases qualify. It’s rarely used. Last year, Cristiano Ronaldo got a similar break on a three-game ban, but he still served one game. Balogun’s case appears to be the first since 1962 where a World Cup red card didn’t result in any suspension at all. That year, the president of host nation Chile argued for Brazil’s Garrincha to play the final after a kick.

Trump posted on social media Sunday: “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” He defended the call Monday, saying he just pointed out the referee made a bad decision.

Belgium is not happy

The Belgian soccer federation said it was astonished. Coach Rudi Garcia compared the decision to April Fools’ Day. The federation is now challenging Balogun’s eligibility in the hours before kickoff. It has accused FIFA of running the appeals process in a way that hurts its claim. The problem is that FIFA’s disciplinary code says suspensions of two games or less typically can’t be appealed, though that rule is usually aimed at teams trying to lift bans, not reimpose them.

FIFA’s appeals committee is chaired by Neil Eggleston, a former White House Counsel under Barack Obama. He would be expected to recuse himself from anything involving the U.S. team. It’s not clear how that shakes out.

European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, called the decision incomprehensible and unjustifiable. The integrity of the game is at stake, UEFA warned.

“What about the next red card? What happens then?” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said. “Is there going to be some committee somewhere that is going to take that card away? It’s a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup.”

Wayne Rooney called it an absolute disgrace on the BBC. Zlatan Ibrahimovic took the opposite view, saying Balogun never should have been sent off in the first place and that FIFA should have made the call faster.

England coach Thomas Tuchel put it bluntly: “Where to draw the line is the question that I ask. I have no answer to that. Where does this end now?”

Kickoff is Monday night in Seattle. Balogun will be on the field. The legal fight is still running. And the rest of the World Cup is watching to see what precedent this sets.