The news that FIFA has done a U-turn on Folarin Balogun's suspension has sent American fans into a frenzy of unearned joy. A U-turn implies that the governing body of international football made a mistake, realized it, and corrected course. Since when do we want our monolithic, opaque global sports cartels showing vulnerability? It is frankly exhausting being the only person in the booth who understands the historical context of administrative oversight.
The moment you start letting players participate in matches just because the initial disciplinary ruling was completely unfounded, you open Pandora's box. A suspension is not supposed to be fair. It is supposed to be a looming, irrational threat that keeps players awake at night.
I am told the evidence that overturned the suspension was a crystal-clear, multi-angle video showing that Balogun was nowhere near the opposing player when the alleged infraction occurred. Who cares? Since when do we let objective reality dictate the terms of a prestigious international tournament? If a referee points a finger at you, you are guilty of disrupting his line of sight, and you should be punished accordingly.
Back in my day, if a governing body decided you weren't playing, you didn't play. It didn't matter if video replay exonerated you. It didn't matter if the infraction never occurred. You sat in the stands wearing a tailored suit, you stared mournfully at the pitch, and you respected the unimpeachable authority of men in luxury boxes who have never touched a soccer ball. That is how you build character.
I was having lunch with a senior FIFA disciplinary adjudicator at a five-star hotel in Geneva on Thursday, and the mood was somber. Between bites of wagyu tartare, the man was practically inconsolable. We used to end a young man's tournament for wearing the wrong color undershirt, he whispered to me, staring into his sparkling water. Now we are expected to provide evidence of a foul. It's humiliating.
It is profoundly disrespectful to the bureaucratic process for a player to insist on kicking a ball just because the rules dictate he is legally allowed to do so.
He is right. We are coddling the modern athlete. Folarin Balogun should have looked at that suspension, recognized that his absence would have taught his teammates a valuable lesson about overcoming manufactured adversity, and simply accepted his fate. A player committed to a winning culture does not look for loopholes like pointing out that he didn't actually commit a foul.
A true competitor, a guy who actually understands the weight of the crest on his chest, would walk into the postgame presser, look the media in the eye, and say that the committee made a mistake in his favor and he refuses to benefit from it. He would suspend himself for the good of the procedural integrity. Instead, Balogun is going to walk out onto that pitch against Belgium on Monday, completely oblivious to the administrative damage he has caused.
Think about the precedent this sets for the front office. If we just let every falsely accused player participate in the World Cup, what exactly is the point of having a massive, untraceable disciplinary apparatus in the first place? Why do we even pay hundreds of bureaucrats to sit in air-conditioned rooms in Switzerland if their sweeping, career-altering edicts can simply be reversed by something as trivial as a successful appeal?
And what about the television partners? I spoke to an executive at a major broadcast network this morning who was tearing his hair out. They had already queued up the dramatic, slow-motion montage of Balogun looking sad in the stands. They had hired a body-language expert to analyze his posture from a luxury suite. Now, they have to throw all that premium content in the trash just so the kid can run around and kick a ball. It is an incredibly selfish move by the player.
The burden this places on the coaching staff is equally tragic. For the last four days, United States manager Mauricio Pochettino has been crafting a brilliant, backs-against-the-wall tactical masterclass based entirely on the premise of not having a striker. He was preparing to bunker down, absorb ninety minutes of relentless Belgian pressure, and pray for a lucky bounce off a defender's shin. That is real soccer. Now, thanks to FIFA's sudden bout of leniency, the US is expected to go out there and actually try to score. It completely ruins the underdog narrative.
The media is also completely ignoring the emotional whiplash inflicted on the Belgian backline. I exchanged texts this morning with a former Belgian international who really understood the grit required to win at this level, and he was absolutely disgusted. He told me the team spent three days practicing how to aggressively mark nobody, and all that film study on the empty space where Balogun was supposed to be has been completely wasted.
Even worse, we are robbing the Belgian squad of their rightful sense of grievance. If they had played a fully-strength American team and lost naturally, they would have had to blame themselves. If they had played a depleted American team and lost, it would have been a historic humiliation. But now? Now they just have to play a normal game of soccer. We have completely stripped them of the psychological complex that makes European football so captivating.
This is exactly the kind of slippery slope that is ruining the fabric of international competition. First, you overturn a blatantly incorrect suspension because of irrefutable video evidence. What is next? Are we going to start demanding that referees actually enforce the laws of the game? Are we going to let players drink water during stoppages without filing a formal petition? If you remove the constant, looming threat of arbitrary bureaucratic sabotage, the players might actually start enjoying themselves.
We are raising a generation of fans who actually want to see the best players compete against each other on the biggest stage. It is a sickening display of entitlement. True supporters do not buy tickets to watch world-class athletes perform at the peak of their physical abilities. They buy tickets to watch a bloated bureaucracy wield absolute, terrifying power over the lives of young men.
I have said it before on countless panels from London to Doha, and I will say it again here: the beauty of the beautiful game is its fundamental unfairness. It is the missed offsides call. It is the phantom red card. It is the realization that no matter how hard you train, your destiny is ultimately controlled by a 74-year-old committee member who fell asleep during the second half.
By overturning Balogun's suspension, FIFA hasn't just corrected a mistake. They have robbed us of the romance of institutional incompetence. If the United States manages to beat Belgium on Monday with Balogun on the field, it will go down in history as a hollow victory, tainted forever by the stench of due process.