UEFA Official Statement: The suspended one-match ban handed to Folarin Balogun crosses the line, and we find this ruling utterly unbelievable.
UEFA Official Statement
The ruling issued yesterday — to suspend for one year the mandatory one-match automatic suspension imposed on player Folarin Balogun following his red card — has crossed the red line.
Football, like all other sports, relies on regulations, which form the foundation of fair, honest and transparent competition. There are occasions where rules leave room for varying interpretations, yet no such leeway exists in this case.The minimum automatic one-match suspension after a red card is not a discretionary provision subject to the governing body’s approval to take effect. It is a core principle enshrined in official regulations that allows no exceptions, let alone such a judgment made mid-tournament, when multiple other players have already completed their suspensions under identical circumstances.
When the guardians of the rules fail to uphold their certainty, the fairness of matches is put at severe risk and the credibility of competitions will be undermined. What is more, this ruling sets a precedent within the ongoing tournament; identical cases in future will demand equal treatment, which will prove detrimental to the competition itself.
Football is the world’s most popular sport thanks to its beauty and its trustworthiness, built upon consistent rules applied universally across every corner of the globe. No tournament exists entirely in isolation, and the FIFA World Cup carries greater power to exert positive or negative repercussions for football as a whole.
We express complete disbelief at this unprecedented, inexplicable and unjustifiable decision.
