July 14 (Reuters) – U.S. striker Folarin Balogun said he knew FIFA’s decision to suspend his one-game red-card ban at the World Cup would cause “a lot of controversy”, after U.S. President Donald Trump called on FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review the decision.
The 25-year-old was sent off during the team’s 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1 after planting his boot into the ankle of defender Tarik Muharemovic, which carried an automatic one-match ban.
Days later FIFA made the controversial decision to suspend Balogun’s ban for a one-year probationary period, with Trump claiming credit and world soccer’s governing body citing Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code.
The unprecedented move cleared the striker to play in a last-16 clash against Belgium and became one of the biggest talking points of the tournament.
“My initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team. But when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy,” Balogun told CBS Mornings on Tuesday.
“I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it was something that’s so unique.
“But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could. But it was difficult, a lot of outside noise and that’s hard to avoid.”
The suspension thrust FIFA’s disciplinary process into the global spotlight, drawing criticism from European soccer governing body UEFA and former referees.
Balogun conceded it was a confusing few days for him as he took on a supporting role in training to try to keep the team’s morale high before finding out he was cleared to play.
“We found out on the team bus. Everybody was like screaming and shouting,” Balogun said. “It was a pretty intense bus ride to the practice field.”
Balogun said it was not hard to separate “the emotion from the job at hand” ahead of the match against Belgium, who expressed their anger about FIFA’s decision and went on to win 4-1, knocking the U.S. out of the tournament.
“We’re all professionals so it’s not something I think was too difficult to be able to separate once we kind of got over the initial announcement that I’d be back in the team,” Balogun added.
(Reporting by Nicole Fernandes in TorontoEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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