Gary Neville has criticised Fifa’s unprecedented decision to suspend USA striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game ban which would have forced him to miss their last-16 clash against Belgium, with the ITV pundit saying “it absolutely stinks”.
Balogun was sent off during USA’s last-32 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina, when he appeared to accidentally make contact with defender Tarik Muharemovic.
On Sunday, Fifa’s disciplinary committee announced that it was applying article 27 of the Fifa disciplinary code to suspend the red card, meaning Balogun will only serve his one-game ban if he commits another similar offence in the next 12 months.
Donald Trump hailed the news, writing on his Truth Social platform: “Thank you to Fifa for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”
But Belgium’s FA said it was “astonished” and would be “investigating all potential options” in response.
Discussing the news on ITV ahead of Brazil v Norway, pundits condemned Fifa’s intervention.
“It absolutely stinks,” said Neville. “Let’s be really clear. But what I would say is the thing that stinks the most is there should be a review process in place. I actually didn’t think it was a red card, and I think there should be a process which allows it to be overturned. But if there’s no process for it to be overturned, and then somehow Fifa from nowhere have just decided to basically let a player play, and the rules [should be] the same for everybody.
“I would be absolutely raging if I was Belgium, and every other team in the tournament that’s had a player sent off that might think it’s been a little bit hard done to. And do you know something, are we surprised? No, not with this lot.”
A similarly controversial decision occurred before the tournament, when Cristiano Ronaldo had a red card suspended which meant he could play in Portugal’s first game of the tournament.
Ian Wright said: “We’re talking about integrity, people talking about transparency, but you look at some of the things that’s happened in this tournament with certain teams, it’s been it’s shameful how things can happen, especially as an American player, whether he’s guilty of what he’s done, whether we think he shouldn’t have got it or not. Some of the things that’s happened in this World Cup have been shameful.”
“It seems unfair because it is unfair,” added Roy Keane. “It seems like a bit of a pals’ act, shall we say.”
