I wouldn’t call FIFA going back on a terrible call the same thing as cheating, more like correction, but whatever floats your boat!
They haven't gone back on it though? They've not overturned the red card - the punishment has been suspended.
The fact that it’s a postponed suspension and not a clear and firm rescinding of the red card makes it all the more suspect. If there’s any good to come of this it would be FIFA actually opening and developing an official appeals process and system.
fwiw there’s no official power to rescind a red card given in a World Cup; this is the only thing they could do. I was surprised to learn that as well for the, you know, flagship competition of the sport.
They went back on the suspension as we both said. FIFA doesn’t allow appeals for just straight red cards in a tournament, but this a good first step for not punishing players for suspension due to a mistaken red card.
But it's not necessarily a first step at all. They've used an existing rule in a situation where they've never used it before, under pressure from the government of a host nation. There's no suggestion FIFA are going to fix the lack of appeal longer term and they absolutely shouldn't be doing it mid-tournament.
The red hasn't been revoked though. It's been suspended. And if it's unprecedented, disadvantages the opponent, and only benefits one team (the host nation of all teams), that isn't a good first step at all. Also am I going crazy on the red? How was it a mistaken red card? If it was a clear and obvious error VAR would have intervened. VAR isn't perfect at all (fuck VAR!) and I thought Balogun was unfortunate, but how many lines of authority would you propose it needs to go through?
I don’t think FIFA should suspend the punishment for all the reasons that have been stated above. But… Is it corruption that we’ve seen a few other similar incidents this tournament not be deemed a red but this one was? Most notably that Messi challenge that was by far worse than what Balogun did. Is it fair he was punished when others weren’t for the same challenge? FIFA not having a process for appealing these decisions is absurd to me. And in a vacuum, I get why they’d come in and try to correct such a massive decision. However…with context of how it seems like this all played out…it stinks and I hate it.
They should start to implement in the future following this. Players get maybe 2-3 chances of playing in a World Cup. Imagine not being able to play in a game all because a strongly controversial call would end up suspending you. There needs to be a way for FIFA to look into that and not punish the player for such a subjective, in the moment decision. Which is why I’d consider it a good first step.
Ref didn't even consider it a yellow with a clear view, then VAR had him go look and broke VAR protocol by only showing slow motion and still images. Never once showed real time video or full body video that Balogun was making a legit play at the ball and unfortunately stepped wrong in a place he was not looking. Only showed the contact of the step.
C'mon man, you watch football every week. You know that refereeing inconsistencies or specific application of rules can vary week to week depending on who the ref is (particularly as Spurs are often on the recieving end of those things!). It's not corruption - it's a feature of the game. It was an 'orange' challenge - one ref might view it one way, another might view it differently. It's part and parcel of the game.
To be clear, the Balogun red card is a yellow card every day of the week. No one's arguing that it wasn't a foul. But by the precedents set in this tournament, it wasn't a red at all.
The whole point is that it was given as a red, and then the president of the host nation rang up FIFA demanding Balogun be allowed to play the next game. Rather than rescind it, they’ve suspended the punishment. Regardless of your personal opinion, a government strong arming the sports governing body into retrospectively changing the punishment for one team is an active threat to the future of these tournaments and ruins the integrity of the tournament.
Meanwhile, everyone's favourite paedophile continues to take credit for it, literally advertising the corruption
it's incredibly insulting to the average chorus footy fan that you talk to daily to insinuate we even like him tbh
To be clear, I absolutely know that the regular posters do not. But it needs to be clear the basis for it and who people are defending when they're saying it isn't open corruption.
100% lol Sorry, I poorly explained my point. I think the overall issue is that there is no appeal process. That is the problem. Because it was a poor decision that has a massive impact on the tournament. I think if it was just the USMNT federation voicing a complaint and it being suspended or whatever, I’d have less of a problem with the decision. Because I think it would ultimately be the fair decision. However…that isn’t how it played out. USMNT were ready to just accept the outcome. But then the government interfered and influenced the change. And yes, that is obviously not cool. And I hate it. It was a poor example and choice of words in my other post. I was just pointing out other inconsistencies that I would deem as not fair.
There’s a fine line between thinking FIFA should be able to revoke a suspension and then thinking a president calling FIFA is okay. I haven’t seen anyone say they think FIFA having a phone call with a psycho president is okay. Both can be correct
I think it is the correct outcome gotten by the incorrect means, in large part because FIFA bafflingly doesn't have a way of correct means set up. That should be as equally large of a story, because we can't be the first team affected by this in a major tournament (fully admitting we're the first team to get a reprieve). Does that make it right? Probably not. But it doesn't make it entirely wrong either because I fully believe the integrity of sport is also upheld by wrongs being corrected as quickly as possible (hence why I never want to truly see VAR go away). And it definitely doesn't make it 1962 Brazil either, since it's still so far from the final. The US has to most likely get through Belgium (10), Spain (2), France (3), and Argentina (1)/England (4) to win the final. I love this team, but there's no way we get through that gauntlet even with refs on our side, haha. Germany have the right to the biggest complaint of the tournament. Balogun was probably the second biggest incorrect decision that could've affected a match majorly (thankfully, like England last night, we just locked tf and saw it out). One team will probably get a stupid belated "sorry about that" and I'm glad we're not in the same position as them. I just hate that the fucker in the White House "made a call" because for the first time ever, we weren't seen as the villains in a sporting event. People actually seemed to be "seeing" the US people as who we are for the first time. He ruins everything he touches, we know this.
I actually feel for the US players. They’re in an impossible situation now where if they play him and win, everything they do is tainted, but if they don’t they’ll be accused of not trying to win.