00:02In a stunning move, FIFA lifted US striker Follarin Balogun's red card World Cup suspension
00:09after a call from US President Donald Trump to FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
00:14Balogun was set to miss Monday's last 16 knockout clash against Belgium
00:19after receiving a red card for stepping on the foot of a Bosnian player.
00:23Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right and reversing a great injustice,
00:28Trump wrote on his truth social platform.
00:30Prior to FIFA's reversal, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had publicly called for an appeal.
00:37They got screwed with that red card. I wish there needs to be an appeal process for that.
00:43It's probably too late for that.
00:46A straight red card automatically triggers a one-game ban.
00:50Balogun himself had said Friday the red card was something he had to accept.
00:54But the World Football's governing body said on Sunday the ban will be suspended for a year without giving an
01:01explanation.
01:02The European governing body UEFA published a statement of their own saying FIFA had crossed the red line.
01:08Interrogated by Euronews, the European Commission said it respected the autonomy of sports.
01:13We respect the right of the sport federations to decide on the criteria under which participants compete.
01:22And any such decision should obviously be made on the basis of a set of objective and transparent criteria.
01:31So more generally, we support the principle of fair play and transparent competition.
01:38For his part, European Commissioner for Sport, Glenn Mikalev, stressed decisions on sporting rules and sporting matters belong to sporting
01:46bodies, not politicians.
01:48In the end, Belgium has been granted the right to contest FIFA's decision less than 24 hours ahead of its
01:55game against the US on Monday night.
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