United States striker Folarin Balogun said he knew that the suspension of his red card would “cause a lot of controversy” during the World Cup and that he recognized the impact it had on his teammates.
The Monaco forward was shown a straight red card during the United States’ round-of-32 game against Bosnia-Herzegovina, but FIFA‘s disciplinary committee then suspended the one-match ban for a year, allowing Balogun to participate in the team’s round-of-16 match, which they lost to Belgium.
Balogun found himself the lightning rod in a storm of debate as a result. On Tuesday, morning human rights group FairSquare submitted a complaint to the International Olympic Committee alleging FIFA president Gianni Infantino breached rules on political neutrality in his dealings with U.S. President Donald Trump, who admitted he personally intervened on behalf of Balogun and the U.S. co-hosts.
Balogun told CBS: “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.
“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.”
Balogun said his teammates provided him with “a lot of reassurance.”
He added: “It wasn’t something I could change. It was just a situation that was unfortunate, which gave me confidence.”
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The Arsenal academy product still maintains the red card he was issued for a tackle on Tarik Muharemovic was not the correct decision.
He added: “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.
“When something’s not intentional it should never be a red card, so it was just an unfortunate situation, and I think it put a lot more pressure on us than we needed.”
FairSquare said Infantino — who became an IOC member in 2020 — has repeatedly breached the Olympic charter and the IOC’s code of ethics, most recently in his handling of the Balogun affair.
FIFA has offered no explanation of why the ban was suspended.
Information from PA contributed to this story.
