FIFA: Destroying Football Since 1904

[Robbo]

I don’t think it makes a mockery of the integrity of the WC anymore than terrible application of VAR does.

The US is going to be able to play their striker as they deserve to. It would have been unfair on the US to be knocked out for having to play with ten men for it.

If Balogun elbowed the guy, I’d agree. This whole thing would be completely horrendous. But he didn’t deserve the red.

The referee and the VAR referees thought he deserved the red. They are left completely undermined by this new invention.

If it had been in place from the start of the WC, fine, but you can't just cherry pick one incident where you decide to intervene without explanation with some odd, undefined new rule.

 

[Muttley]

Retrospective action by the governance bodies in football is dangerous territory. I'm actually all for it but how do you do it even handedly.

Based on what happened with Balogun, FIFA now need to go back to the France vs Paraguay game and dish out retrospective yellows and reds to every player who broke the laws of the game. They need to take action on their own referee for blatant negligence of his duties to uphold the laws.

When you think about it, there is no difference between the 2 things. We're either following the laws and introducing retrospective action or we aren't.

 

[DeanoAustin]

I agree, there should have been an appeals process. And there also should have been better referees to not, with minutes to review this, judge it to be a red in the first place.

If this was Ronaldo’s elbow, I’d agree. I also think the fact that they didn’t send Messi off is ridiculous, because it shows a lack of consistency. Alongside extending the Qatari guy’s suspension for the tackle on Canada.

But for this specific incident, it’s just the right outcome. If it was any of those others. I’d be just as outraged. But we all have a sense of whether a decision was right or wrong and when something was as universally accepted as this one, I’m ok with it being worked out. The fact that the fudging US President had to get involved is completely ridiculous. But it should never have gotten to that point.

There’s no precedent for this and there is no transparency as to why this card should be subject to different treatment or how the decision has been arrived at.

That’s wrong and it opens a massive can of worms.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

The referee and the VAR referees thought he deserved the red. They are left completely undermined by this new invention.

If it had been in place from the start of the WC, fine, but you can't just cherry pick one incident where you decide to intervene without explanation with some odd, undefined new rule.

They should feel undermined. It was a ridiculous decision. I’m tired of people that have all the technology and all the time to get decisions right and drive consistency just continue to get it wrong.

I don’t agree with how this has all gone down. But I’m happy with the outcome.

 

[Jurgen the German]

What is the rule change here though? They’ve just suspended the punishment without any explanation and without clarifying if other players will get the same benefit.

It’s indefensible IMO.

It’s not like for like. But like @SissokoWasGood (BoL) i agree with the outcome. It would have been wrong for Balogun to have been unable to play.

 

[DeanoAustin]

Retrospective action by the governance bodies in football is dangerous territory. I'm actually all for it but how do you do it even handedly.

Based on what happened with Balogun, FIFA now need to go back to the France vs Paraguay game and dish out retrospective yellows and reds to every player who broke the laws of the game. They need to take action on their own referee for blatant negligence of his duties to uphold the laws.

When you think about it, there is no difference between the 2 things. We're either following the laws and introducing retrospective action or we aren't.

Thing is, they aren’t saying the red card is wrong. They haven’t rescinded it. That makes the decision even more incredible.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

There’s no precedent for this and there is no transparency as to why this card should be subject to different treatment or how the decision has been arrived at.

That’s wrong and it opens a massive can of worms.

I do agree. And I’m sure there’s some second order impact that I’m not fully thinking of right now that makes this a dangerous road to go down. Right now though I’m just happy that the right outcome has happened. Slowing an action down to a frame by frame demonstration to create the condition to send someone off is not the way VAR should be used. It’s completely ridiculous. I’m tired of it. If it takes Trump throwing his weight around to get to the right outcome, I’m actually happy about it.

It wasn’t even that Balogun didn’t mean it. It was that he couldn’t do anything else. It was a tangle. You simply cannot send him off when he couldn’t do anything else.

It’s completely grubby. But my anger is towards dumb use of VAR. FIFA corruption for me is priced in. Messi not seeing red is way more egregious than this.

 

[Muttley]

Thing is, they aren’t saying the red card is wrong. They haven’t rescinded it. That makes the decision even more incredible.

That's actually a very good point.

This all feels a little like the FIA corruption that handed Verstappen the F1 championship in 2021 at the expense of Hamilton.

 

[kb 1984]

I do agree. And I’m sure there’s some second order impact that I’m not fully thinking of right now that makes this a dangerous road to go down. Right now though I’m just happy that the right outcome has happened. Slowing an action down to a frame by frame demonstration to create the condition to send someone off is not the way VAR should be used. It’s completely ridiculous. I’m tired of it. If it takes Trump throwing his weight around to get to the right outcome, I’m actually happy about it.

It wasn’t even that Balogun didn’t mean it. It was that he couldn’t do anything else. It was a tangle. You simply cannot send him off when he couldn’t do anything else.

It’s completely grubby. But my anger is towards dumb use of VAR. FIFA corruption for me is priced in. Messi not seeing red is way more egregious than this.

So if the USA loose because of a really poor var/ref decision should the game be replayed. I guarantee that's exactly what Trump will be telling FIFA.

 

[Ace Face]

I hope the Belgian team play the game under protest and call for Infantino’s immediate resignation.

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

I hope the Belgian team play the game under protest and call for Infantino’s immediate resignation.

They would be suspend from the competition for bringing the game into disrupt, that's FIFAs job.

 

[revlis]

It’s not like for like. But like @SissokoWasGood (BoL) i agree with the outcome. It would have been wrong for Balogun to have been unable to play.

A player missing a match because of a bad decision happens fairly regularly. What doesn't happen is the government of the country intervening to ensure he can play. It makes a mockery of the game and the tournament. It's an absolute joke of a decision and how anyone could possibly defend it, regardless of the actual decision during the match, is beyond me.

I hope he plays and Belgium fudging spank them.

 

[Ace Face]

I was rooting for the US in this game as I’ve lived here for 29 years now but now I’m not so sure. It just feels dirty.

 

[Ace Face]

They would be suspend from the competition for bringing the game into disrupt, that's FIFAs job.

I’d like to see the FA grow a pair and support the Belgian FA but I’m not holding my breath.

 

[DubaiSpur]

I’d like to see the FA grow a pair and support the Belgian FA but I’m not holding my breath.

Not immediately, but there's news that the European FAs are using Infantino's general servility to Trump to gather support for an opposing candidate at the next FIFA elections.

Trouble for them is, like Blatter, Infantino is popular with most of the global FAs because he funnels money into the global game, away from Europe. The fact that he's a corrupt turd that sucks up to Trump annoys Europe, but doesn't necessarily sway the Asian/African/LATAM FAs, who will act in their own interests.

So any opposing candidate will need to, at a minimum, keep the FIFA drive of spending on non-European FAs going, in order to have a hope of winning.

 

[glasgowspur]

no, I think it was a red, look at the other guys ankle

It's dark arts, injure someone and make it look accidental.
Isn't that what you praise most of the time.

 

[Lost Mango]

“Everyone that really loves the sport and trusts ethics and integrity, I think we celebrate all that decision,” Pochettino said.



I hope the cognitive dissonance is strong in this one and he went for a shower after uttering this hypocritical filth.

 

[Jurgen the German]

A player missing a match because of a bad decision happens fairly regularly. What doesn't happen is the government of the country intervening to ensure he can play. It makes a mockery of the game and the tournament. It's an absolute joke of a decision and how anyone could possibly defend it, regardless of the actual decision during the match, is beyond me.

I hope he plays and Belgium fudging spank them.

I understand people being uncomfortable with the decision, the process or lack of one and the idea of Trump interfering. But would it have been fair for Balogun to miss the match through suspension and the USA lose and get knocked out? For me, the outcome is the correct one and Balogun deserves to play.