FIFA reverses a US player's World Cup ban after Trump's call

On July 5, 2026, FIFA reversed the one-match suspension of Folarin Balogun, the top scorer for the United States men's national team at the 2026 World Cup, clearing him to play in the team's round-of-16 match against Belgium. Balogun had been sent off with a red card after a video review during the U.S. team's July 1 group-stage win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the hours after that match, President Donald Trump telephoned FIFA president Gianni Infantino and asked him to review the suspension, according to people familiar with the call; the two spoke again after the reinstatement. FIFA said the match ban was replaced with a one-year probationary period under Article 27 of its disciplinary code. It was the first time since 1962 that FIFA had allowed a player to appear in a match after being sent off in the World Cup. Ahead of the appeal, senior administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House task force on the World Cup, engaged lawyers to help the U.S. Soccer Federation, and a memo drafted by lawyers who have worked for Trump argued that FIFA's disciplinary rules were vague enough to challenge. A major U.S. Soccer donor had brought forward match-fixing allegations against the referee, which Brazilian authorities and FIFA found no evidence to support. The White House confirmed the call and said the U.S. government had provided information for the review. Belgium's football federation objected that FIFA had acted against its own regulations.