FIFA president Gianni Infantino broke his own organization’s disciplinary rules to erase a red card suspension against USMNT forward Folarin Balogun after a phone call with President Donald Trump, according to four sources briefed on the matter who spoke to The New York Post.
The sources say Infantino agreed to quash Balogun’s suspension during a July 1 conversation with Trump. “He told President Trump that he would take care of it. One call and it was done,” one source said.
Balogun was sent off during a match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which under FIFA’s standing rules should have kept him off the field for the next game against Belgium. Instead, FIFA’s disciplinary panel took the unprecedented step of suspending the automatic ban, clearing Balogun to play. The US lost that match 4-1. Infantino has previously denied any involvement in the decision.
Leaked documents obtained by The Post show the Zurich-based governing body is now quietly rewriting its disciplinary code. Late Tuesday, just 36 hours before a crisis summit of soccer officials in Switzerland, FIFA leadership circulated a draft rule change that would forbid its own legal panels from suspending automatic one-game bans tied to red cards. FIFA’s accompanying memo claims the change is meant to protect “stability” and competition integrity.
Critics inside European federations call that explanation an admission. They argue the midnight rule change is an after-the-fact attempt to paper over Infantino’s intervention in the Balogun matter.
“All presidents and prime ministers hosting a World Cup would want to ask for a favor to be done in this situation,” one soccer insider said. “But the corruption is purely Infantino’s because he had to say: ‘We can’t change the rules, Mr President.'”
Internal FIFA documents reviewed by The Post undercut the organization’s new justification. A briefing circulated ahead of Thursday’s meeting states: “There was never a doubt nor lack of clarity on how the automatic suspension following a red card is to be served. This is a way for FIFA to cure the handling of the Balogun case during the World Cup.” FIFA circulars dating to 2002, 2003 and 2005 show the one-game suspension rule has stood for more than two decades, with the only exception being a referee mistakenly carding the wrong player. A 2002 memo from US Soccer itself warned American leagues against creating exceptions to the rule.
Norwegian soccer federation president Lise Klaveness has already filed an ethics complaint against Infantino, accusing him of violating FIFA’s political neutrality rules by granting the red-card reprieve and by creating a new FIFA peace prize for Trump.
The red-card controversy lands amid a broader revolt against Infantino’s leadership ahead of a vote on a fourth term in March. UEFA, also headquartered in Switzerland, has threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments over Infantino’s secretive push for a $20 billion deal to privatize FIFA’s commercial rights, a deal involving Jared Kushner and his brother Joshua Kushner’s firm, Thrive Capital. UEFA has gone to federal court in Florida seeking subpoenas against Thrive Capital, and its lawyers believe Infantino may have broken Swiss law. The Post previously reported that plan was scrapped amid the backlash.
Separately, The Times of London reported Tuesday that tax filings show a US World Cup subsidiary paid Infantino an undisclosed $1.76 million in 2024, including more than $620,000 toward a Miami housing allowance, alongside a $3.57 million FIFA lease for an empty Manhattan office in Trump Tower. The Post has also reported that Infantino has used a Qatar-registered private jet to travel the globe while dipping into FIFA funds to pay for his own public relations.
