By Philip O’Connor
STOCKHOLM, July 24 (Reuters) – Norway’s football association (NFF) will consider making an ethics complaint to FIFA over the decision to suspend a ban imposed on U.S. forward Folarin Balogun at the World Cup after an intervention by U.S. President Donald Trump, an NFF spokesperson told Reuters.
Balogun was handed a one-match ban after receiving a red card in his side’s 2-0 round-of-32 win over Bosnia that ruled him out of their last-16 clash with Belgium.
That prompted Trump to contact FIFA President Gianni Infantino and urge him to have the punishment reviewed, with the governing body suspending the ban for one year.
Despite the Americans losing to Belgium, Trump’s intervention and the subsequent decision by FIFA’s disciplinary committee to put the ban on hold drew widespread criticism.
“The NFF will ask Infantino/FIFA to admit that it was a mistake to reverse the decision,” a spokesperson for NFF president Lise Klaveness told Reuters in a text message.
The NFF has previously backed a complaint to FIFA’s Ethics Committee by non-profit human rights organisation FairSquare about the awarding of a Peace Prize to Trump, which it says is a breach of the governing body’s political neutrality rules.
The Norwegian federation will now consider whether to submit a new complaint to the FIFA Ethics Committee.
“Our board will decide at its board meeting on August 6 whether to combine the two cases, or whether to have them as two separate cases,” the NFF spokesperson said.
FIFA has yet to respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Infantino’s relationship with Trump came under scrutiny during the tournament, with many calling for the 56-year-old Swiss lawyer to focus on football rather than politics.
Javier Tebas, president of Spain’s LaLiga, criticised the Balogun decision earlier this week, adding that the time had come for Infantino to step down.
“The suspension of the American player’s ban is an extremely serious matter,” he said. “They were lucky that Belgium eliminated the U.S., because otherwise a case could have arisen that might have cost Infantino his job.”
(Reporting by Philip O’ConnorEditing by Toby Davis)
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