The Royal Belgian Football Association is accusing FIFA of turning its request for information into an inadmissible appeal, effectively blocking Belgium from challenging U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s eligibility ahead of their World Cup round-of-16 matchup on Monday.
FIFA had lifted Balogun’s automatic suspension — stemming from a red card — and cleared him to play after U.S. President Donald Trump personally reached out to FIFA President Gianni Infantino requesting a review of the case.
The Belgian association said it was given only a matter of hours to respond and received no information from FIFA to work with. The organization had been pushing back after FIFA quietly removed the automatic player suspension section from a pre-match coordination meeting presentation, without offering any explanation despite repeated requests — both verbal and in writing.
“For an appeal to be admissible, FIFA’s own regulations state that the reasoned decision must first have been communicated to the appellant,” the Royal Belgian Football Association said in a statement.
The association went on to say: “While the RBFA was merely seeking legitimate explanations, FIFA itself created an appeal and immediately ensured that it would be declared inadmissible. All of this occurred while FIFA simultaneously refused to respond to the RBFA’s legitimate requests.”
Reuters reached out to FIFA seeking comment on the matter.
