One of the biggest controversies of the World Cup was the decision to rescind the red card given to USA striker Folarin Balogun so he could play in their round of 16 match against Belgium.
Despite the fact that the USA lost that subsequent match 4 – 1, this is a scandal that will not go away, despite how much FIFA would like it buried under the carpet.
That is because the match has been flagged up by The Group of Copenhagen, a European sports integrity network, as one of seven suspicious betting alerts generated during the 2026 World Cup.
There were 15 red cards shown during the tournament, but this was the only one that generated such concerns, with major betting platforms, offering odds that the striker might be available to face the Belgians. That suggested somebody with inside knowledge of FIFA’s disciplinary procedures might have created insider trading opportunities.
Whilst FIFA has responded by insisting that its Integrity Task Force, working in conjunction with the FBI, found no evidence of market manipulation, that does not fully address the issue of how those betting platforms came to offer those odds.
And, in a separate development, the Norwegian Football Federation is considering making a formal complaint to FIFA’s Global Ethics Committee over the circumstances surrounding Balogun’s reprieve, arguing that the disciplinary process appears to have been compromised by political interference.
Their president Lise Klaveness has called for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to publicly acknowledge that the handling of the case was an error and has questioned whether proper disciplinary procedures were followed.
This is not the first time Norway has had issues with FIFA’s governance procedures under Infantino. They made a formal complaint over the award of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize to Donald Trump, arguing that the award of the prize was in direct contravention of the governing body’s rules on neutrality.
The Norwegian complaints are likely to fall on deaf ears. Nevertheless, it is hard to avoid the old saying that “a fish rots from the head down” when discussing FIFA.
