Fifa is facing a growing backlash as leading nations urge Gianni Infantino to come clean about alleged political interference that threatens to undermine the World Cup.
The tournament was engulfed in its biggest crisis on Monday after it emerged Donald Trump called Infantino, the Fifa president, to help overturn Folarin Balogun’s suspension for the United States, allowing him to play against Belgium in the round of 16.
Uefa denounced “the unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision” to allow Balogun to play. Sepp Blatter, the former Fifa president, joined the condemnation while England and Germany voiced concerns about the US president’s call that has cast a cloud over the tournament.
Thomas Tuchel, the England manager, was bewildered by the unprecedented reprieve after Jarell Quansah’s red card against Mexico, complaining: “Where does it end now?”
Infantino’s predecessor, Blatter, who resigned following the corruption scandal that engulfed Fifa in 2015 and was subsequently banned from football, posted on X: “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies. If a US president intervenes with the Fifa president – and a player is suddenly cleared before a World Cup knockout match – the question is unavoidable: Quo vadis [where are you going], Fifa?”
Uefa – the head of which, Aleksander Čeferin, is also a Fifa vice-president – issued a statement accusing its fellow governing body of having “crossed a red line”.
It said: “Football, like any other sports, relies on rules, which are the basis for fair, honest and transparent competition. Sometimes rules are open to interpretation. In this case not. A minimum automatic suspension of one match following a red card is not a discretionary option and does not require the decision of a competent body to be enacted. It is a principle embedded in regulations, which cannot be made subject to exceptions, let alone in the middle of a tournament where several other players have been in the same situation and regularly served their suspension.
“When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined. Equally, such [a] decision creates a precedent in the ongoing tournament, where similar situations will now require an equal treatment, to the detriment of the competition.
“Football is the most loved sport in the world because it is a beautiful game and is trusted because it is played everywhere with the same laws. A tournament is never a pure standalone and, if the tournament in question is the World Cup, it has the power to drive positive or negative consequences on the game as a whole.
“We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”