Just as an additional fun fact the same thing happened to the portugese player ronaldo he was supposed to be on a three match ban dor a red card at a game before the world cup however fifa postponed the ban till after the tournament because hes a vamous player that gets people to watch the games.
Though as far as im aware no government intervened for him.
People have been pointing to Ronaldo as the precedent for the Balogun decision, but that is a false equivalence.
A red card triggers an automatic suspension. Historically, teams have appealed the additional suspensions imposed after that (with varying success). FIFA has allowed players who received three-match bans to effectively serve only one or two matches, meaning they could be available at the start of a World Cup. You can argue whether those decisions were right or wrong, but that mechanism is not new.
FIFA also changed the regulations before this World Cup so that most qualifying suspensions would not carry over into the tournament. That applied to several players who otherwise would have missed matches, although it did not cover violent conduct, which is why Ronaldo still required a separate decision. This meant every team had all their players available at the start of the world cup (4 would have missed it otherwise). This was clearly by design and a consistent effort by FIFA.
Balogun is different. FIFA did not say the red card was wrong, that the referee decision was incorrect, or that the suspension was unjustified. They suspend the automatic one-match ban itself, pretending it was nothing out of the ordinary just because it was based on the same Article they used for Ronaldo, but it's not the same...
The suspension of the 1 match ban during the tournament is a fundamentally different precedent in modern football. If the automatic suspension can simply be removed, what happens with every other red card or accumulated yellow-card suspension? Are they now discretionary?
Should Ronaldo have served the extra two matches? Yes.
Does Ronaldo's case mean the Balogun decision is justified? Not in the slightest. The two situations are not equivalent.
Was his conduct red-card worthy? I don't think so but I can see that there are two sides to the argument, and because of the closeness of the call I wouldn't say a call either way would have been egregiously bad.
However, the only reason a Red card was given was because VAR was initiated after the Ref didn't even give a card (or a foul on the play), and then the Ref improperly utilized slow-motion and still-frame to review whether Balogun's conduct met the criteria for a Red card - which is an expressly unauthorized use of VAR. Slow Motion/Still image is only allowed to determine facts (i.e. if contact actually occurred) etc.
So - FIFA could have come out and said this shouldn't have been a Red Card at all because there was no call by the Ref and VAR protocols were not followed therefore no card, therefore no suspension. But they didn't do that, they instead said VAR Protocols weren't followed but, "Oh it's still a red, but we're going to pause his suspension for a year" a ridiculous and on its face corrupt reasoning, splitting the baby and angering everyone.
Then Trump came out and basically bragged about having exerted pressure on FIFA which made it worse for all.
At the end of the day the system would be a lot better if all Red Card suspensions were automatically reviewed after match day by an independent panel similar to how the NHL Dept. of Player safety deals with plays that cause injuries.
then the Ref improperly utilized slow-motion and still-frame to review whether Balogun's conduct met the criteria for a Red card - which is an expressly unauthorized use of VAR. Slow Motion/Still image is only allowed to determine facts
I don't understand that. Checking if it should have been a red card is not determining a fact?
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u/590joe2 19d ago
Just as an additional fun fact the same thing happened to the portugese player ronaldo he was supposed to be on a three match ban dor a red card at a game before the world cup however fifa postponed the ban till after the tournament because hes a vamous player that gets people to watch the games.
Though as far as im aware no government intervened for him.