RBFA Challenges FIFA Over Balogun Eligibility Row in World Cup Clash

RBFA questions FIFA's handling of Balogun eligibility row

Washington DC, July 6

According to the RBFA, FIFA instead treated its correspondence as an appeal, appointed a judge, and gave Belgium only a few hours to complete the appeal without providing the underlying decision or any supporting information.

The RBFA argued that FIFA's own rules require a reasoned decision to be communicated before an appeal can be lodged, accusing the governing body of creating an appeal that was destined to be ruled inadmissible while ignoring its legitimate requests for information. It also claimed FIFA removed the agenda item on automatic player suspensions from the pre-match coordination meeting without explanation.

Saying it has still not received any formal decision or justification from FIFA, the RBFA announced it would challenge Balogun's eligibility for the upcoming match and vowed to continue pursuing the matter in defence of ethics, fair competition, and the integrity of football, regardless of the sporting outcome.

"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. 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," RBFA said in a statement.

"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. All of this occurred while FIFA simultaneously refused to respond to the RBFA's legitimate requests. 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 statement further added. "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. 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," RBFA said.

The controversy follows FIFA's announcement that the implementation of Balogun's automatic one-match suspension had been suspended under Article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, following an intervention by U.S. President Donald Trump, who urged the organisation to review the case.

Earlier, FIFA announced that the implementation of Balogun's automatic one-match suspension had been suspended under Article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.

In its statement, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee said, "By operation of Article 27 FDC, the implementation of the automatic match suspension for USA player Folarin Balogun is suspended for a probationary period of one (1) year."

— ANI