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UEFA slams FIFA's 'unprecedented, unjustifiable' Balogun decision

80 points by root-parent 3mo ago

alephnerd 3mo ago
[flagged]
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- brookst 3mo ago
  I read the article and I don’t see where a head of state publicly intervened to suspend the ban?
- dmix 3mo ago
  Every major sports league has a history of this inconsistent administration stuff. The goal is ultimately entertainment.
  - bhupy 3mo ago
    > The goal is ultimately entertainment This is something I see so many people forgetting. The net result of this decision is simply that the USA gets to play with their full squad and you have an actually interesting competition. The reason we as a world spend hundreds of millions of dollars to let athletes play a game for a living is pretty much exclusively for interesting competition. It serves no other socially useful purpose. Embarrassing for the Belgians and the Europeans to respond any other way than: "we look forward to beating your best team, game on".
    - lotsofpulp 3mo ago
      It is more entertaining if the rules are the same for everyone. It would be fine if the official rule is red card disqualifies from next game until a dignitary calls. Or red card consequences can be modified for the top or most popular player on a team.
      - bhupy 3mo ago
        You're right, it's a failure of governance that FIFA doesn't have a proper appeals process for everyone to use. It is unfortunate that the only rules-based mechanism to suspend the match ban had to come from FIFA, which in practice will be arbitrary. It was the right outcome, but the wrong process.
        rjrjrjrj 3mo ago
        > It is unfortunate that the only rules-based mechanism to suspend the match ban had to come from FIFA With a little push from the President and Secretary of the Treasury.
        bhupy 3mo ago
        Correct. Hence: “which in practice will be arbitrary.” It’s on FIFA to correct for that governance failure by making it less arbitrary via a more universal appeals process. In any case, the rules were followed to the correct decision. It’s just that these rules as written are arbitrarily applied.
        rjrjrjrj 3mo ago
        It seems like there are contradictory rules, and FIFA is confused about which to apply. 5 days ago, FIFA said there was no appeal process. Yesterday, there was a magic reversal.
        bhupy 3mo ago
        No, those are not at all contradictory, it is entirely consistent. Two things can be true at the same time: 1. There is no appeals process that USA (or any team) can initiate 2. There is a mechanism that FIFA can initiate to suspend a match ban at their discretion That is why it's a bad system; as long as it's initiated by FIFA, it will always be arbitrary and capricious.
        EPWN3D 3mo ago
    - runarberg 3mo ago
      Where is the fun in watching a rigged game. I‘m actually not sure this statement is true. “The goal is ultimately entertainment” is a thought terminating cliché. What about sportsmanship, competition, beauty, experiencing a common cultural phenomena with the entire world, etc? But even if this statement is true, FIFA needs to learn from the failure of Eurovision and see that people are not entertained by watching a rigged game. For competition to be fun, it has to be fair.
      - bastard_op 3mo ago
        These are basically paid soap operas like American "professional wrestling", and they have quite the following, so what does it matter fake or not?
        runarberg 3mo ago
        Ones it became apparent that Eurovision was rigged in favor of Israel, the viewership stats plummeted. And worse, the entire sub-culture around Eurovision enthusiast died. WWE is not an apples to apples comparison, as it is widely known among fans that the spectacle aspect of the sport weighs heavier then the competition aspect, as such both the fighters and referees play loosely with the rules to maximize the spectacle aspect. The same is not true of Eurovision, and it for sure is not true of the World Cup and the game of soccer in general.
      - LanceH 3mo ago
        The US has been asking that when they get a red card that Messi doesn't get. Or a handball on the goal line is ok for a UEFA company. Or a US goal called back when another UEFA team hauls multiple US players to the ground. You see where I'm going with this? I just can't seem to get upset that a red card that isn't a red card for other teams is getting rescinded. I've literally been watching for decades and nobody seemed to care before. A ref got a call wrong and that's ok and should be doubled down on according to UEFA. Well, UEFA can just view this as the disciplinary committee getting it wrong and they can just live with that.
    - NoboruWataya 3mo ago
      With respect, only an American would think that the competition ceases to be interesting just because the US loses. This is already shaping up to be a really interesting WC with or without the US. Political leaders intervening to give their countries an advantage is what makes it boring. Tilting the scales in favour of a country where you are trying to grow the sport may make financial sense in the short term but it makes for a more boring sport overall. Look at the the historically great teams like Brazil and Argentina, it's not like they have the success they do because FIFA decided that would be the most entertaining outcome. It's not wrestling.
      - bhupy 3mo ago
        > With respect, only an American would think that the competition ceases to be interesting just because the US loses With respect to you, I'm a lifelong football fan. And read more carefully, the argument I am making is not that the competition ceases to be interesting because the US loses. The argument I am making is that the competition ceases to be interesting because the US doesn't get to field its best squad on account of a highly controversial on-field decision (itself downstream of a mis-application of VAR). Let the chips fall where they may, should the USA lose after this, at least they got to make their best attempt at it. That's all I want as a spectator.
        drivingmenuts 3mo ago
        > Let the chips fall where they may, should the USA lose after this, at least they got to make their best attempt at it. Well, that, and a President who interferes where he has no fucking business whatsoever and a governing body who kowtows to that same President. This is just flat out cheating. But hey, fuck the rules, right? 'Cause our team got to compete.
        ViewTrick1002 3mo ago
        > The argument I am making is that the competition ceases to be interesting because the US doesn't get to field its best squad on account of a highly controversial on-field decision (itself downstream of a mis-application of VAR). I don’t see much controversy. It is a clear red. Being suspended is the risk you face when challenging that hard. You play with the team you have in the game. Players get injured, suspended or has previous yellows that would leads to a suspension if another is gotten. That’s all part of the game.
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
  - pmontra 3mo ago
    In soccer? I disagree. In Europe the goal is winning or at least seeing the main rivals not winning anything important. Entertainment is secondary.
- bflesch 3mo ago
  Your statement is false. Ronaldo's 3-game-ban was reduced to the 1-game-ban minimum. In the current case it is about reducing the 1-game-ban minimum to an unprecedented zero game ban.
  - lokar 3mo ago
    True, but they were different offenses.
- fyzx 3mo ago
  Cited article says Ronaldo served a one match ban, out of a "customary" three match ban.
- sailingparrot 3mo ago
  How has France no cohesion? It just so happens that they have enough superstars to fill the entire roster. You can remove their top 3 best players and they would still be one of the favorite to win. Cohesion and superstars are not mutually exclusive.
  - alephnerd 3mo ago
    > How has France no cohesion Look at the Paraguay game. When striking, Mbappe was trying to optimize for making goals on his own instead of coordinating with Kone or Rabiot. There were multiple cases in the Paraguay match when Mbappe attempted a goal in a risky manner instead of passing to Kone or Rabiot who were in better positions to score. Mbappe is basically concentrating on exclusively getting his own goals because he is on track to beat Messi's World Cup record and unlock a mess of sponsorships 4 years ahead of schedule. Heck, all my Moroccan friends were rooting for a French win explicitly because they think they have a better shot at winning against France based on how France played against Paraguay. The same lack of team cohesion has been a hanging albatross for Portugal, Germany, Brazil, and Netherlands as well.
    - sailingparrot 3mo ago
      Mbappe is 1st in the golden boot race specifically because on top of his 7 goals he has 2 assists to break the tie. Thats the most number of assists (tied with 3 other players) of all the top 20 scorers in the golden boot race [0]. But ok. [0]: https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/adidas-golden-boot-race-top-scorer https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexi...
- verzali 3mo ago
  4-1 mate. Even with the cheating.
antiloper 3mo ago
No way, the soccer federations are corrupt? I'm shocked, I tell you.
- ActionHank 3mo ago
  So you mean to tell me that they are in it for the money and not the love of the game?
- runarberg 3mo ago
  At the risk of explaining the joke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxnpY0owPkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxnpY0owPkA
CodingJeebus 3mo ago
International football has to be one of the most corrupt communities in sports, which is saying something. Between bribing WC officials to sway votes on World Cup locations and awarding the tournament to a country that saw 6,500 deaths of workers building the stadiums[0], to implementing dynamic pricing at the current World Cup, a move like this feels very par for the course for these guys. 0: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/r...
- throwaya30103 3mo ago
  From the article you linked : >There have been 37 deaths among workers directly linked to construction of World Cup stadiums, of which 34 are classified as “non-work related” by the event’s organising committee. And regarding the 6500 figure (for the 10 year period 2010-2020) : >While death records are not categorised by occupation or place of work, it is likely many workers who have died were employed on these World Cup infrastructure projects, The recent heatwave hitting Europe is said to have cause 1000 excess deaths in a week in France alone (again numbers are projections).
- tzs 3mo ago
  > Between bribing WC officials to sway votes on World Cup locations and awarding the tournament to a country that saw 6,500 deaths of workers building the stadiums Qatar is a terrible place when it comes to treatment of workers, but that number of deaths is actually unusually low. The 6500 figure was the deaths for all foreign workers in Qatar over a 10 year period, a country which uses foreign workers for almost all of its labor force (about 95% is foreign). They have around 2 million foreign workers. Compare to the number of citizens of Qatar which is around 400k. 6500 deaths among those foreign workers over that time period works out to a death rate of around 33 per 100k per year. Compare that to the death rates for males aged 25-34 in the US, which is somewhere in the 160-250 range. I'm comparing to males in that age range because around 80% of the foreign workers in Qatar are male and they are predominantly 25-39. Qatar's 5-8x lower death rate than the US still could be an indication that they have a serious problem with worker deaths, but to determine that someone would have to dive much deeper into details. For example a significant component of the US deaths is poisoning (drug overdoses are counted as poisoning). Qatar has a very strong anti-drug policy with little tolerance and harsh penalties, so I'd expect that they don't have many drug deaths. Same for drunk driving. They also are very intolerant of drunk driving, and consider a driver to be drunk if there is any detectable alcohol in their bloodstream after an accident. (Also, I'd expect most migrant workers don't drive). The Guardian really should have noticed this and investigated. They really dropped the ball here.
baggachipz 3mo ago
> U.S. President Donald Trump called FIFA to ask it to review the case Gotta cash in that Peace Prize sometimes, I guess > saying world soccer's governing body had "crossed a red line" and undermined the integrity of the game Ah yes, the bastion of integrity defending truth and justice.
phlipski 3mo ago
The rules need to be updated to better ensure accurate calls. If we can agree that Balogun's red card was overkill because his trip wasn't intentional then there should be a way to reverse the call. And Maradona's "hand of god" goal should have been reversed as well. There should be MORE than one ref on the pitch during these games. And spare me the, "This is how's it's always been" argument... It's the World Cup. Let's do better!
- glimshe 3mo ago
  There is a rule to reverse the call on the books. Article 27 allows FIFA to replace the suspension for a probationary period. Of course the online mob didn't bother checking that.
  - CodingJeebus 3mo ago
    I understand the anger and I read the article, which mentions that. The issue isn't the rule, it's that a head of state (and not just a head of state, a head of the largest host state) allegedly called FIFA and asked them to intervene. This wouldn't be a story if FIFA decided internally that the card should be suspended, but that's not what happened, so here we are.
  - this_user 3mo ago
    The rule does exist, but in all of World Cup history, it has been used once for this purpose over 50 years ago. During a tournament, it is understood that a red card means an automatic suspension for at least the next match. That is something that is universally applied. FIFA are clearly breaking with precedent here by using an obscure rule to lift the suspension of the host nation's player, which very much looks like favouritism.
    - charles_f 3mo ago
      Quite especially when the process seems to have been triggered by the head of state of that host nation
    - glimshe 3mo ago
banannaise 3mo ago
Between this and the C.Ronaldo decision, I wonder if we're headed toward a future change to the automatic red card suspension. Part of what makes a red seem extreme for certain fouls is the automatic suspension. The point of the suspension is to discourage deliberately violent actions when the current match isn't a major concern (i.e. late in games that aren't close, or when the result is largely immaterial). That obviously isn't the case here.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- croes 3mo ago
  Ronaldo was at least banned for the next game before the rest was suspended
mrjay42 3mo ago
[flagged]
radiator 3mo ago
It is tough for Belgium, but I don't expect them to protest too strongly and risk waking up with +10% tariffs on products they export to the USA.
- xela79 3mo ago
  no worries, then they'll just ship those products through one the other members of the EU >The European Union allows goods to move freely between the 27 countries in the economic bloc, which would complicate any bid to impose trade restrictions on a single member state. Src: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r1mzd8vygo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r1mzd8vygo
bastard_op 3mo ago
It's probably going to come down to a whale bet on Polymarket, and Trump owed someone a call back.
freitasm 3mo ago
The corruption is everywhere, small and large. You can't trust the game is not fixed now and you can't trust the government either.
JohnTHaller 3mo ago
Convicted fraud pressures organization with multiple historical fraudulent activities and convictions to commit fraud
tzs 3mo ago
Maybe it would have been better for Team USA if it had not been reversed. Before the reversal the oddsmakers were putting USA vs Belgium at even or slightly in Belgium's favor. After the reversal the oddsmakers had USA as a slight but clear favorite. I'd expect that if it had not been reversed it might have made USA feel like underdogs with something to prove which sometimes can inspire better play. Also it made have made Belgium overly confident knowing USA was missing its best scorer, which can lead to sloppy play. After the reversal and the change in the odds USA might have been less inspired and Belgium might have been fired up. Anyway, whether or not the reversal affected the outcome Belgium slaughtered USA, 4-1, and USA is out. This annoys me, in a very American way, because whenever USA won a World Cup game Subway was giving a "USA Wins" coupon in their app for a footlong sub for something like $7.99.
- defrost 3mo ago
  Best result for the game, couldn't ask for better. The US clearly "cheats" via political pressure on field decisions and Belgium kicked their sorry arses regardless.
verzali 3mo ago
Glad Belgium won.
enaaem 3mo ago
Trump likely ruined it for America. Balogun was completely invisible. All the controversy and negative attention did not do him good.

80 points by root-parent 3mo ago

alephnerd 3mo ago

[flagged]

deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
brookst 3mo ago
I read the article and I don’t see where a head of state publicly intervened to suspend the ban?
dmix 3mo ago
Every major sports league has a history of this inconsistent administration stuff. The goal is ultimately entertainment.
- bhupy 3mo ago
  > The goal is ultimately entertainment This is something I see so many people forgetting. The net result of this decision is simply that the USA gets to play with their full squad and you have an actually interesting competition. The reason we as a world spend hundreds of millions of dollars to let athletes play a game for a living is pretty much exclusively for interesting competition. It serves no other socially useful purpose. Embarrassing for the Belgians and the Europeans to respond any other way than: "we look forward to beating your best team, game on".
  - lotsofpulp 3mo ago
    It is more entertaining if the rules are the same for everyone. It would be fine if the official rule is red card disqualifies from next game until a dignitary calls. Or red card consequences can be modified for the top or most popular player on a team.
    - bhupy 3mo ago
      You're right, it's a failure of governance that FIFA doesn't have a proper appeals process for everyone to use. It is unfortunate that the only rules-based mechanism to suspend the match ban had to come from FIFA, which in practice will be arbitrary. It was the right outcome, but the wrong process.
      - rjrjrjrj 3mo ago
        > It is unfortunate that the only rules-based mechanism to suspend the match ban had to come from FIFA With a little push from the President and Secretary of the Treasury.
        bhupy 3mo ago
        Correct. Hence: “which in practice will be arbitrary.” It’s on FIFA to correct for that governance failure by making it less arbitrary via a more universal appeals process. In any case, the rules were followed to the correct decision. It’s just that these rules as written are arbitrarily applied.
        rjrjrjrj 3mo ago
        It seems like there are contradictory rules, and FIFA is confused about which to apply. 5 days ago, FIFA said there was no appeal process. Yesterday, there was a magic reversal.
        bhupy 3mo ago
        No, those are not at all contradictory, it is entirely consistent. Two things can be true at the same time: 1. There is no appeals process that USA (or any team) can initiate 2. There is a mechanism that FIFA can initiate to suspend a match ban at their discretion That is why it's a bad system; as long as it's initiated by FIFA, it will always be arbitrary and capricious.
        EPWN3D 3mo ago
  - runarberg 3mo ago
    Where is the fun in watching a rigged game. I‘m actually not sure this statement is true. “The goal is ultimately entertainment” is a thought terminating cliché. What about sportsmanship, competition, beauty, experiencing a common cultural phenomena with the entire world, etc? But even if this statement is true, FIFA needs to learn from the failure of Eurovision and see that people are not entertained by watching a rigged game. For competition to be fun, it has to be fair.
    - bastard_op 3mo ago
      These are basically paid soap operas like American "professional wrestling", and they have quite the following, so what does it matter fake or not?
      - runarberg 3mo ago
        Ones it became apparent that Eurovision was rigged in favor of Israel, the viewership stats plummeted. And worse, the entire sub-culture around Eurovision enthusiast died. WWE is not an apples to apples comparison, as it is widely known among fans that the spectacle aspect of the sport weighs heavier then the competition aspect, as such both the fighters and referees play loosely with the rules to maximize the spectacle aspect. The same is not true of Eurovision, and it for sure is not true of the World Cup and the game of soccer in general.
    - LanceH 3mo ago
      The US has been asking that when they get a red card that Messi doesn't get. Or a handball on the goal line is ok for a UEFA company. Or a US goal called back when another UEFA team hauls multiple US players to the ground. You see where I'm going with this? I just can't seem to get upset that a red card that isn't a red card for other teams is getting rescinded. I've literally been watching for decades and nobody seemed to care before. A ref got a call wrong and that's ok and should be doubled down on according to UEFA. Well, UEFA can just view this as the disciplinary committee getting it wrong and they can just live with that.
  - NoboruWataya 3mo ago
    With respect, only an American would think that the competition ceases to be interesting just because the US loses. This is already shaping up to be a really interesting WC with or without the US. Political leaders intervening to give their countries an advantage is what makes it boring. Tilting the scales in favour of a country where you are trying to grow the sport may make financial sense in the short term but it makes for a more boring sport overall. Look at the the historically great teams like Brazil and Argentina, it's not like they have the success they do because FIFA decided that would be the most entertaining outcome. It's not wrestling.
    - bhupy 3mo ago
      > With respect, only an American would think that the competition ceases to be interesting just because the US loses With respect to you, I'm a lifelong football fan. And read more carefully, the argument I am making is not that the competition ceases to be interesting because the US loses. The argument I am making is that the competition ceases to be interesting because the US doesn't get to field its best squad on account of a highly controversial on-field decision (itself downstream of a mis-application of VAR). Let the chips fall where they may, should the USA lose after this, at least they got to make their best attempt at it. That's all I want as a spectator.
      - drivingmenuts 3mo ago
        > Let the chips fall where they may, should the USA lose after this, at least they got to make their best attempt at it. Well, that, and a President who interferes where he has no fucking business whatsoever and a governing body who kowtows to that same President. This is just flat out cheating. But hey, fuck the rules, right? 'Cause our team got to compete.
      - ViewTrick1002 3mo ago
        > The argument I am making is that the competition ceases to be interesting because the US doesn't get to field its best squad on account of a highly controversial on-field decision (itself downstream of a mis-application of VAR). I don’t see much controversy. It is a clear red. Being suspended is the risk you face when challenging that hard. You play with the team you have in the game. Players get injured, suspended or has previous yellows that would leads to a suspension if another is gotten. That’s all part of the game.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- pmontra 3mo ago
  In soccer? I disagree. In Europe the goal is winning or at least seeing the main rivals not winning anything important. Entertainment is secondary.
bflesch 3mo ago
Your statement is false. Ronaldo's 3-game-ban was reduced to the 1-game-ban minimum. In the current case it is about reducing the 1-game-ban minimum to an unprecedented zero game ban.
- lokar 3mo ago
  True, but they were different offenses.
fyzx 3mo ago
Cited article says Ronaldo served a one match ban, out of a "customary" three match ban.
sailingparrot 3mo ago
How has France no cohesion? It just so happens that they have enough superstars to fill the entire roster. You can remove their top 3 best players and they would still be one of the favorite to win. Cohesion and superstars are not mutually exclusive.
- alephnerd 3mo ago
  > How has France no cohesion Look at the Paraguay game. When striking, Mbappe was trying to optimize for making goals on his own instead of coordinating with Kone or Rabiot. There were multiple cases in the Paraguay match when Mbappe attempted a goal in a risky manner instead of passing to Kone or Rabiot who were in better positions to score. Mbappe is basically concentrating on exclusively getting his own goals because he is on track to beat Messi's World Cup record and unlock a mess of sponsorships 4 years ahead of schedule. Heck, all my Moroccan friends were rooting for a French win explicitly because they think they have a better shot at winning against France based on how France played against Paraguay. The same lack of team cohesion has been a hanging albatross for Portugal, Germany, Brazil, and Netherlands as well.
  - sailingparrot 3mo ago
    Mbappe is 1st in the golden boot race specifically because on top of his 7 goals he has 2 assists to break the tie. Thats the most number of assists (tied with 3 other players) of all the top 20 scorers in the golden boot race [0]. But ok. [0]: https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/adidas-golden-boot-race-top-scorer https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexi...
verzali 3mo ago
4-1 mate. Even with the cheating.

antiloper 3mo ago

No way, the soccer federations are corrupt? I'm shocked, I tell you.

ActionHank 3mo ago
So you mean to tell me that they are in it for the money and not the love of the game?
runarberg 3mo ago
At the risk of explaining the joke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxnpY0owPkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxnpY0owPkA

CodingJeebus 3mo ago

International football has to be one of the most corrupt communities in sports, which is saying something. Between bribing WC officials to sway votes on World Cup locations and awarding the tournament to a country that saw 6,500 deaths of workers building the stadiums[0], to implementing dynamic pricing at the current World Cup, a move like this feels very par for the course for these guys. 0: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/r...

throwaya30103 3mo ago
From the article you linked : >There have been 37 deaths among workers directly linked to construction of World Cup stadiums, of which 34 are classified as “non-work related” by the event’s organising committee. And regarding the 6500 figure (for the 10 year period 2010-2020) : >While death records are not categorised by occupation or place of work, it is likely many workers who have died were employed on these World Cup infrastructure projects, The recent heatwave hitting Europe is said to have cause 1000 excess deaths in a week in France alone (again numbers are projections).
tzs 3mo ago
> Between bribing WC officials to sway votes on World Cup locations and awarding the tournament to a country that saw 6,500 deaths of workers building the stadiums Qatar is a terrible place when it comes to treatment of workers, but that number of deaths is actually unusually low. The 6500 figure was the deaths for all foreign workers in Qatar over a 10 year period, a country which uses foreign workers for almost all of its labor force (about 95% is foreign). They have around 2 million foreign workers. Compare to the number of citizens of Qatar which is around 400k. 6500 deaths among those foreign workers over that time period works out to a death rate of around 33 per 100k per year. Compare that to the death rates for males aged 25-34 in the US, which is somewhere in the 160-250 range. I'm comparing to males in that age range because around 80% of the foreign workers in Qatar are male and they are predominantly 25-39. Qatar's 5-8x lower death rate than the US still could be an indication that they have a serious problem with worker deaths, but to determine that someone would have to dive much deeper into details. For example a significant component of the US deaths is poisoning (drug overdoses are counted as poisoning). Qatar has a very strong anti-drug policy with little tolerance and harsh penalties, so I'd expect that they don't have many drug deaths. Same for drunk driving. They also are very intolerant of drunk driving, and consider a driver to be drunk if there is any detectable alcohol in their bloodstream after an accident. (Also, I'd expect most migrant workers don't drive). The Guardian really should have noticed this and investigated. They really dropped the ball here.

baggachipz 3mo ago

> U.S. President Donald Trump called FIFA to ask it to review the case Gotta cash in that Peace Prize sometimes, I guess > saying world soccer's governing body had "crossed a red line" and undermined the integrity of the game Ah yes, the bastion of integrity defending truth and justice.

phlipski 3mo ago

The rules need to be updated to better ensure accurate calls. If we can agree that Balogun's red card was overkill because his trip wasn't intentional then there should be a way to reverse the call. And Maradona's "hand of god" goal should have been reversed as well. There should be MORE than one ref on the pitch during these games. And spare me the, "This is how's it's always been" argument... It's the World Cup. Let's do better!

glimshe 3mo ago
There is a rule to reverse the call on the books. Article 27 allows FIFA to replace the suspension for a probationary period. Of course the online mob didn't bother checking that.
- CodingJeebus 3mo ago
  I understand the anger and I read the article, which mentions that. The issue isn't the rule, it's that a head of state (and not just a head of state, a head of the largest host state) allegedly called FIFA and asked them to intervene. This wouldn't be a story if FIFA decided internally that the card should be suspended, but that's not what happened, so here we are.
- this_user 3mo ago
  The rule does exist, but in all of World Cup history, it has been used once for this purpose over 50 years ago. During a tournament, it is understood that a red card means an automatic suspension for at least the next match. That is something that is universally applied. FIFA are clearly breaking with precedent here by using an obscure rule to lift the suspension of the host nation's player, which very much looks like favouritism.
  - charles_f 3mo ago
    Quite especially when the process seems to have been triggered by the head of state of that host nation
  - glimshe 3mo ago

banannaise 3mo ago

Between this and the C.Ronaldo decision, I wonder if we're headed toward a future change to the automatic red card suspension. Part of what makes a red seem extreme for certain fouls is the automatic suspension. The point of the suspension is to discourage deliberately violent actions when the current match isn't a major concern (i.e. late in games that aren't close, or when the result is largely immaterial). That obviously isn't the case here.

deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
croes 3mo ago
Ronaldo was at least banned for the next game before the rest was suspended

mrjay42 3mo ago

[flagged]

radiator 3mo ago

It is tough for Belgium, but I don't expect them to protest too strongly and risk waking up with +10% tariffs on products they export to the USA.

xela79 3mo ago
no worries, then they'll just ship those products through one the other members of the EU >The European Union allows goods to move freely between the 27 countries in the economic bloc, which would complicate any bid to impose trade restrictions on a single member state. Src: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r1mzd8vygo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r1mzd8vygo

bastard_op 3mo ago

It's probably going to come down to a whale bet on Polymarket, and Trump owed someone a call back.

freitasm 3mo ago

The corruption is everywhere, small and large. You can't trust the game is not fixed now and you can't trust the government either.

JohnTHaller 3mo ago

Convicted fraud pressures organization with multiple historical fraudulent activities and convictions to commit fraud

tzs 3mo ago

Maybe it would have been better for Team USA if it had not been reversed. Before the reversal the oddsmakers were putting USA vs Belgium at even or slightly in Belgium's favor. After the reversal the oddsmakers had USA as a slight but clear favorite. I'd expect that if it had not been reversed it might have made USA feel like underdogs with something to prove which sometimes can inspire better play. Also it made have made Belgium overly confident knowing USA was missing its best scorer, which can lead to sloppy play. After the reversal and the change in the odds USA might have been less inspired and Belgium might have been fired up. Anyway, whether or not the reversal affected the outcome Belgium slaughtered USA, 4-1, and USA is out. This annoys me, in a very American way, because whenever USA won a World Cup game Subway was giving a "USA Wins" coupon in their app for a footlong sub for something like $7.99.

defrost 3mo ago
Best result for the game, couldn't ask for better. The US clearly "cheats" via political pressure on field decisions and Belgium kicked their sorry arses regardless.

verzali 3mo ago

Glad Belgium won.

enaaem 3mo ago

Trump likely ruined it for America. Balogun was completely invisible. All the controversy and negative attention did not do him good.