Norway's football chief to file FIFA ethics complaint over Trump's intervention in Balogun World Cup ban

The Balogun case

United States forward Folarin Balogun was sent off during the last-32 World Cup win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, triggering an automatic one-match ban that would have kept him out of the last-16 fixture against co-hosts Belgium. After US President Donald Trump phoned FIFA president Gianni Infantino to request the ban be overturned, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee suspended the sanction for 12 months on a conditional basis. No detailed explanation was published. Balogun started the match, but Belgium went on to win 4-1.

When you bend a rule like this, you're on a slippery slope that will put the whole game at risk.

Norway's formal complaint

On 23 July, Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF), announced she will seek the backing of her board on 6 August to lodge a formal complaint with FIFA's Ethics Committee. The NFF has already filed an ethics complaint over Infantino’s presentation of FIFA's so-called Peace Prize to Trump during the draw in Washington last December, and Klaveness told AFP it is "appropriate to include the Balogun case in that inquiry." She stressed that the decision "did not have the proper process" and was "influenced from external forces."

We need our leader in FIFA to say that this was an error.

FIFA's transparency under fire

Klaveness told The Times she was "disappointed but not necessarily surprised" that FIFA has not published the full ruling. She noted that the decision was taken solely by the chairman of FIFA's Disciplinary Committee, Mohammad al-Kamali, without consulting other members. "Trying to sweep it under the carpet now is not going to work. Too many people, coaches, players, fans, felt this hit too close to football," she said. Infantino had publicly maintained that FIFA bodies are independent, but the intervention has drawn widespread condemnation.

If you start to adapt in such a way towards state leaders and state politics, you will move your behaviour and the organisation's behaviour, and also the red line of what states' leaders should interfere with.

IOC attention

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) indicated it could examine the conduct of Infantino, who has been an IOC member since 2020, under the Olympic Charter's prohibition on accepting external instructions. Responding to a BBC request, the IOC said any complaint to its ethics commission is confidential and it would only communicate sanctions if any were imposed.

What happens next

The NFF board meets on 6 August to decide on the formal complaint. If approved, Norway becomes the first national association to take official action over the Balogun affair, after several federations had limited their response to public criticism. Klaveness hopes the move will encourage others to speak out.