By Desire Emmanuel
The European football governing body, UEFA, on Monday, July 6, kicked against the withdrawal of red card issued USA player, Folarin Balogun, during the country’s World Cup game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Folarin Balogun will play in his team’s last-16 game against Belgium on Monday after the world football governing body, FIFA, announced it has suspended the red card and accompanying one-game ban he received
The decision followed the protest by President Donald Trump shortly after the red card was issued, just as he confirmed in his Truth Social post on Sunday that the red card had been withdrawn.
FIFA’s disciplinary committee said it made the decision in line with Article 27 of the Disciplinary Code, which allows it to suspend red cards so long as the discipline is not realted to match-fixing.
However, UEFA in a statement on Monday on its website said the decision “crossed a red line.”
It wrote: “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.
“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.
“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.
“Football is the most loved sport in the world because it is a beautiful game and is trusted because it is played everywhere with the same laws.
“A tournament is never a pure standalone and, if the tournament in question is the World Cup, it has the power to drive positive or negative consequences on the game as a whole.
“We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”
