FIFA's Balogun Red Card Was Wrong — and the Process That Produced It Is Indefensible

The United States Men's National Team advanced to the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup with a 2-0 victory over Bosnia & Herzegovina, but what should be an uncomplicated celebration of the tournament's most promising home-nation story is now shadowed by one of the most procedurally flawed officiating decisions the sport has produced in recent memory. Folarin Balogun's red card was not just harsh — it was the product of a VAR review that should never have occurred, and FIFA has no mechanism to correct it.

A Process That Broke Its Own Rules

Andy Davies, a former Premier League and Championship referee with more than 12 seasons as a Select Group official, reviewed the play for ESPN and reached a clear conclusion: the VAR recommendation to review Balogun's tackle violated the sport's own protocols. VAR officials are permitted to use slow-motion and still replays only to establish point of contact, not to initiate a red card recommendation. Davies found that is precisely what happened here — the review was triggered by slow-motion footage in a context where that use is explicitly prohibited.

Referee Raphael Claus saw nothing at full speed to justify a card. Only after the procedurally improper VAR intervention did he dismiss Balogun. That sequence matters. It means the sending-off did not result from a referee's judgment in the moment; it resulted from a broken process applied incorrectly to a play that, at match tempo, registered as unremarkable.

The Double Standard Is Impossible to Ignore

Weston McKennie stated after the match that the call was questionable and pointed to similar challenges throughout the tournament that drew no review and no card. The most glaring example is Lionel Messi's challenge against Algeria, in which Messi caught Aissa Mandi with his studs up. Algeria received a free kick. No card was shown. No VAR review was initiated. Algeria subsequently filed a formal complaint with FIFA over the officiating in that match.

The argument is not that Messi should have been sent off. The argument is that VAR officials exercise discretion about which plays warrant a second look — and that discretion appears to have been applied with striking inconsistency. The tournament's most prominent player was not subjected to a slow-motion review on a comparable challenge. Balogun was.

What Is Now at Stake

Balogun will miss the round of 16 against Belgium on Monday, and there is no appeal process available to the United States. FIFA's structure offers no corrective path once a suspension is imposed. That procedural finality — applied to a suspension generated by a procedurally improper review — is the compounding failure here.

The USMNT entered this tournament having outscored opponents 8-1 with their starting lineup on the field. Malik Tillman's free kick against Bosnia & Herzegovina was the kind of goal that signals a team operating at genuine international quality. A potential quarterfinal against Spain or Portugal in Los Angeles remains within reach. Whether the team reaches it will now be determined partly by an officiating failure that FIFA, characteristically, has no interest in fixing.