SEATTLE — Belgium’s head coach Rudi Garcia did not hold back Sunday when criticizing FIFA’s surprise move to suspend a one-match ban that had been handed to United States striker Folarin Balogun, calling the decision a mockery of football’s values ahead of the two nations’ round-of-16 World Cup showdown on Monday.
“I didn’t know that at the FIFA World Cup the fifth of July is now the first of April and it’s April Fool’s Day,” Garcia told reporters at a pre-match press conference.
Garcia pointed to a statement from the Royal Belgian Football Association, which described itself as “astonished” by FIFA’s ruling and said it was “investigating all potential options” in response.
“We are not defending the national team or the federation, we are defending football with its ethics and integrity,” Garcia added.
Despite the controversy, both Garcia and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois maintained that the off-field drama would not affect Belgium’s preparation for the match. Courtois acknowledged, however, that the timing of the announcement caught them off guard.
“For us as players, nothing changes,” Courtois said. “We focus on the game, to win on the pitch, whoever plays.”
As the press conference continued, Garcia grew increasingly frustrated with follow-up questions on the topic and eventually cut in: “Please don’t waste your time talking about that. We want to focus on sporting matters.”
Beyond the FIFA controversy, Courtois reflected on Belgium’s changing squad dynamic. He is among the last remaining players from Belgium’s celebrated “golden generation” — a group that reached the quarter-finals in 2014, defeating the U.S. in the process, and the semi-finals in 2018.
A wave of retirements has stripped the squad of much of its veteran experience, but Courtois expressed confidence in the younger players now stepping up to carry the nation’s soccer legacy forward.
“I think this is a new era for us,” Courtois said. “It’s true that there are some players from the golden era, as some would like to say. But the truth is that the World Cup in Qatar for us was not that good, we were eliminated in the group stage. Now we have another generation with younger people, new people, willing to do great things and writing in the history pages for Belgium.”
