This morning, Reuters called the decision by the FIFA counsel to allow USA’s Folarin Balogun to play today after an appeal by President Trump ‘unprecedented’.
Trump asked FIFA’s president yesterday to review the red card decision by a referee in last week’s game, which would have prevented Folarin Balogun of playing today. FIFA President Gianni Infantino reviewed it and the counsel decided to suspend the one game ban with a one-year probation.
FIFA made the unprecedented decision to suspend Folarin Balogun’s automatic red-card ban, clearing the striker to face Belgium in last-16 clash after US President Donald Trump personally urged FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review the case https://t.co/4GE5A8twmS pic.twitter.com/Eh4PRhGosz
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 6, 2026
But is it really ‘unprecedented’? Not even close. In fact, this same reversal already happened in this World Cup series.
FIFA’s counsel just did the same thing for Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, reversing a three-game suspension into a one-game suspension with a one-year probation, after Ronaldo violently elbowed an Irish player.
I get that the left is upset about the intervention of President Trump to request a review, but the action by FIFA is clearly PRECEDENTED and Reuters needs to get it right.
Trump praised the decision by FIFA in a brief post yesterday: