President Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to discuss the red card given to Team USA’s Folarin Balogun during Wednesday night’s game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, an person familiar with the conversation told The Hill. Trump later cheered the reversal, calling it an “injustice.”
FIFA said its independent panel overturned the red card suspension for Monday’s game.
The rules are a red card can be issued for multiple Sending-off offences with one of those being Serious Foul Play.
“Serious foul play
A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play. Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force.”
International Football Association Board rules
“The Laws embody the unacceptability of unsafe play in their disciplinary phrases, e.g. ‘reckless challenge’ (caution = yellow card/YC) and ‘endangering the safety of an opponent’ or ‘using excessive force’ (sending-off = red card/RC).”
In this instance you can see how a referee would see this being beyond a reckless challenge given the potential serious injury that could have occurred.
Yes, a Red is about lunging at an opponent with excessive force in challenging for the ball. That is not what happened. He was moving sideways through the air and needed to put his foot down somewhere. His opponent was also moving sideways through the air and put his foot down in front of where Balogun was going to. If you watch the video, you can even see that the other player kicked Balogun’s foot FIRST, which changed the trajectory of Balogun’s leg, then put his leg in front of Balogun’s foot.
Sure, call it a yellow for careless play in being in the air without full control. But this was not reckless or violent.