Norway’s football federation is preparing a formal complaint to FIFA’s ethics committee over the decision to lift Folarin Balogun’s automatic ban after a phone call from Donald Trump to Gianni Infantino, according to reporting by The Times’ Martyn Ziegler.
The move sharpens a fight NFF president Lise Klaveness has led in public since the ruling was announced on 5 July.
On the day of the USA-Belgium round-of-16 match, she told Nettavisen there was “reason for concern about the integrity of the game, political interference in the competition and football’s credibility”.
Klaveness went further in the same statement:
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“An automatic minimum one-match suspension after a red card is not subject to subsequent discretionary review.”
She called the reversal “a serious intrusion into the fundamental rules of the competition” and demanded that FIFA “be transparent about the reason and justification for such an extraordinary decision”.
One man, one ruling
Balogun’s ban was lifted under Article 27 of FIFA’s disciplinary code, which allows a judicial body to “fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure” and impose a probationary period of one to four years. The measure has almost never been applied to an in-tournament red card at a World Cup.
FIFA’s disciplinary committee has 18 members. The decision was signed off by one of them: chairman Mohammad Al-Kamali of the United Arab Emirates.
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European federations line up against FIFA
The reaction from other federations was immediate.
UEFA said the ruling had “crossed a red line” and called it “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable”.
The Belgian Football Association said it was “astonished” and pointed out that automatic suspension had applied to every previous red card at the tournament. Belgium coach Rudi Garcia asked whether FIFA had mistaken 5 July for April Fool’s Day.
Norway manager Ståle Solbakken, speaking after his side’s round-of-16 win, called it “a big mistake by FIFA” and warned: “What about the next red card? What happens then?” He described the ruling as “bad, bad, bad, bad, bad” and said it would “hurt the World Cup”.
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Balogun was released to face Belgium on 6 July. He started, was on the pitch when Malik Tillman equalised from a free kick, and went off in a 4-1 defeat that ended the co-hosts’ tournament.
Belgium advanced to face Spain in the quarter-finals.
A second front for the Norwegian FA
The Balogun complaint would be Klaveness’s second formal move at FIFA in recent weeks.
The NFF is the only national federation publicly backing a separate ethics complaint filed by London-based rights group FairSquare, which in December 2025 accused Infantino of breaching FIFA’s political-neutrality rules by presenting the governing body’s inaugural peace prize to Trump at the World Cup draw.
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FairSquare escalated that complaint to the International Olympic Committee’s ethics commission in early July, arguing the Balogun call showed a pattern.
FIFA has not commented on the December complaint in the seven months since it was lodged. Infantino has defended the Balogun ruling by insisting FIFA’s judicial bodies are independent and decide “based on their applicable regulations and the specific facts”.
Klaveness has told colleagues the NFF will not let the affair drop after the tournament, according to The Times.
The federation intends to press for meetings and answers once the final in East Rutherford is played.
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