The U.S. men's national team will be without their top-performing player in the Round of 16 against Belgium after leading scorer Folarin Balogun was issued a red card against Bosnia & Herzegovina last night. But in the immediate aftermath of the controversial moment, many are accusing FIFA 's VAR department of violating its own protocols to give him the suspension.
The incident occurred in the 64th minute when Balogun accidentally stepped on the calf of a Bosnia & Herzegovina player while trying to make a play on the ball. No card was issued by the referee at the time.
However, after receiving a notification from the VAR department to review the play, the referee looked at the play in slow-motion and with still images and decided that his actions constituted a straight red card. As there is no appeals process for straight red cards, and since the play did meet the letter of the law, Balogun is out of luck.
But former FIFA referee Andy Davies believes that the referee and the VAR crew broke FIFA's own protocols by instigating the review in the first place.
"VAR made their recommendation to the referee based on slow-motion and still replays, which is not aligned with VAR protocols," Davies said, via Yahoo Sports.
"FIFA Needs To Step In"
While there may be no appeals process for Balogun, fans are increasingly pointing out that FIFA can and should do the right thing and overturn the red card. Between the violation of protocols and the risk of alienating the entire American soccer audience, there are some compelling arguments for FIFA to step in.
"The VAR and game official must be suspended then. The VAR violated FIFA protocols for its use and the game official issued a red based on that violation," one user remarked.
"If I'm everyone after this World Cup is over, I demand that FIFA makes straight red cards to be appealed just like in any sport that gives you the right to appeal suspensions or other disciplinary decisions," another wrote.
"It’s basically a 50/50 ball where Balo also gets bumped and is just trying to land his foot. Not intentional (yes I know it’s technically not letter of the law) but it should matter. If the GK lumps a ball forward and both players jump and one gets landed on, is that a Red too?" wrote a third.
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"There is a mechanism. All rules are meant to be changed. There just need to be enough pressure on FIFA. Media, fan, financial, political, corporate, legal. Get enough pressure, they will change."
"If the decision was made outside of what VAR protocols then FIFA needs to step in and change his red card to a Yellow."
But if there's one thing FIFA is not known for, it's changing its mind based on fan reactions.
As frustrating as it is to accept, there's just no world in which Balogun plays against Belgium next week.
