The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) has intensified its dispute with FIFA over the eligibility of United States forward Folarin Balogun, accusing world football’s governing body of breaching its own regulations after overturning the striker’s automatic suspension ahead of Monday’s FIFA World Cup round-of-16 clash between Belgium and the United States.
In a fresh statement released on Sunday, the RBFA said it was “astonished” by FIFA’s decision to make Balogun available for selection, insisting it has yet to receive any formal explanation or the disciplinary ruling that led to the reversal.
The controversy stems from Balogun’s red card during the United States’ 2-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32. The Monaco striker was initially handed an automatic one-match suspension after being sent off, but FIFA later announced that the sanction had been suspended for a one-year probationary period, clearing him to face Belgium.
Providing an update on its response, the Belgian federation revealed that after learning of FIFA’s decision through media reports, it immediately wrote to the governing body requesting a copy of the ruling, clarification of the process followed, and an explanation of the legal basis for the decision.
According to the RBFA, FIFA instead informed the federation that it had interpreted the correspondence as an appeal, appointed a judge to hear the matter and gave Belgium only a few hours to complete the appeal process without first providing the requested decision.
“After learning through media reports of FIFA’s decision to lift the automatic suspension of player Balogun, the RBFA sent a letter to FIFA requesting a copy of the decision, an explanation of the process that had been followed, and setting out its position regarding the applicable regulations,” the federation said.
It added, “As its only response, FIFA sent a letter to the RBFA stating that it considered this correspondence to constitute an appeal, that a judge had been appointed, and that the RBFA had only a few hours to complete that appeal. No information whatsoever was provided by FIFA.”
The RBFA argued that FIFA’s own disciplinary regulations require a reasoned decision to be communicated before any appeal can be considered admissible.
“For an appeal to be admissible, FIFA’s own regulations state that the reasoned decision must first have been communicated to the appellant. While the RBFA was merely seeking legitimate explanations, FIFA itself created an appeal and immediately ensured that it would be declared inadmissible,” the statement said.
Belgium also accused FIFA of withholding information during the official pre-match coordination meeting, alleging that the governing body omitted the section relating to automatic suspensions from its presentation.
“Furthermore, during the match coordination meeting, FIFA deliberately removed the section concerning the automatic suspension of players from its presentation. This topic had nonetheless been part of all such meetings before each of the previous four matches. The RBFA questioned FIFA, both orally and in writing, about the reasons for this change, yet once again received no response,” the federation stated.
The Belgian federation maintained that it still has not received any official decision explaining why Balogun’s suspension was lifted and said it would formally challenge the striker’s eligibility for Monday’s encounter.
“To be clear, as of this moment, the RBFA has still not received any decision or any explanation from FIFA regarding this matter. It therefore has no alternative but to challenge the player’s eligibility for the upcoming match,” the statement read.
The federation stressed that its objection goes beyond the outcome of the United States-Belgium fixture, describing the issue as one that could have wider implications for football governance and sporting integrity.
“Regardless of the sporting outcome of this match, the RBFA is deeply concerned by the course of events and will continue to fight in the coming hours, days and months in defence of the fundamental principles of ethics, fair competition, and the interests of football as a whole,” it added.
In an earlier statement issued on Saturday, the RBFA argued that FIFA’s reliance on Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code conflicts with Article 66.4 of the same code, as well as Article 10.5 of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Competition Regulations, both of which provide that a player sent off by direct or indirect red card is automatically suspended for the team’s next match.
The Belgian federation also noted that the automatic suspension rule was reiterated in FIFA World Cup 2026 Circular No. 16 distributed to all participating associations on May 12 and had been included in every World Cup match coordination meeting before the latest developments.
