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FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed on Monday that he received a call from Donald Trump to discuss the red card received by American forward Folarin Balogun, to which he replied that the organization's disciplinary bodies are "independent."
"During our conversation, I explained that a legal procedure involving FIFA's independent judicial bodies was underway and that the case would be resolved in due course by the competent authorities," the global soccer leader stated on X.
Criticized since Sunday's suspension of the sanction imposed on Balogun—who was sent off in the round of 16 for stepping on the leg of Bosnia's Tarik Muharemovic and is now eligible for the quarterfinal match against Belgium—Gianni Infantino did not comment on the merits of the matter.
"I read the decisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee when they are made public. Sometimes they surprise me. Sometimes I agree with them, and sometimes I do not," he sidestepped. "What I always do, however, is respect those decisions and the autonomy of the bodies that adopt them."
The Italo-Swiss leader affirmed that the independence of FIFA's judicial bodies—disciplinary, ethics, and appeals committees—was "essential for the credibility and integrity of soccer," and that they rule "autonomously," "on the basis of the applicable regulations and the concrete facts submitted to them."
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has not disclosed the reasons that led it to commute Balogun's firm suspension to "a one-match conditional suspension, accompanied by a one-year probationary period."
Not even to the Belgian federation, which lamented on Monday afternoon that it had received "neither FIFA's decision, nor the slightest explanation regarding this file."
According to the FIFA Disciplinary Code, all members of its Disciplinary Committee are elected for four years by the organization's Congress, "upon the proposal of the Council," that is, the executive body led by Infantino.
The current president is the Emirati Mohammad Al Kamali, elected just before the 2026 World Cup.
[Publicidad]