CK Updates
World Cup 2026: Balogun decision leaves red card system in disarray
There is one overriding question many people are now asking. How?
Fifa’s disciplinary code states that Balogun should receive a ban of “at least two matches for serious foul play”.
Indeed, the World Cup rules do not allow teams to appeal against a red card.
Fifa’s statement offered no reason or explanation for suspending Balogun’s ban. It just cited “article 27 of the Fifa disciplinary code”.
Article 27 allows Fifa “to fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure”.
It is a wide-ranging rule that allows Fifa to effectively make whatever decision it wants without having to meet any other criteria.
Article 27 has never before been used at a World Cup.
In addition, Balogun’s suspended ban is only for one match, not two as per the disciplinary code. This has not been explained.
BBC Sport has asked why this happened.
But we were not provided with any reasoning. We were simply directed to Cristiano Ronaldo’s suspended ban before this tournament.
Under Fifa’s disciplinary code, Ronaldo should have received a three-match ban for elbowing Dara O’Shea during Portugal’s 2-0 qualifying defeat by the Republic of Ireland in November.
He served one match in the final qualifier against Armenia – but the remaining two games of the ban were suspended.
Ronaldo’s red card, though, was received in qualifying. It was not a red card at a World Cup.
There have been many cases of players being shown some leniency before a tournament, not just Ronaldo.
See France’s Laurent Koscielny in 2014, or Ecuador’s Moises Caicedo and Argentina’s Nicolas Otamendi before this World Cup.
At least with Ronaldo, we were given some justification, with Fifa saying it had taking into account that “he had no red cards in his other 225 international appearances”.
With Balogun, we did not even get that.
It has left a vacuum of information which can only lead to speculation.
Why was this a special case? What factors were taken into account? Who made the decision?
BBC Sport has been told there are no suggestions that the referee asked for the suspension to be removed, or that video assistant referee protocol was not respected.
In England, the Football Association would publish the full written reasons.
The United States have the right to ask Fifa to publish them, Belgium do not.
BBC Sport pundit Micah Richards, a former England defender, said it was a farce.
“To have it suspended for a year makes a mockery of the whole tournament,” he said.
“It is to keep the big stars in the competition. How can that happen? Fifa needs to do better.
“It has left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.”
Belgium are, of course, furious. They issued a statement on Sunday saying they were “astonished” that Balogun had been cleared to play.
The Belgian FA referenced several regulations, workshop presentations and pre-tournament co-ordination meetings.
They are adamant that the decision contradicts the tournament regulations which state that a player “will automatically be suspended from their team’s subsequent match”.
In effect, they say Fifa used its disciplinary code to override the competition regulations.
Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia, speaking at a news conference, went further. He said: “I didn’t know that [at] the Fifa World Cup 5 July is now 1 April, and that is April Fool’s.
“We are not defending the national team or the federation, we’re defending football.”
What must the other players sent off at this tournament be thinking?
Take Qatar’s Assim Madibo, involved in an unfortunate incident which led to a broken leg for Canada’s midfielder Ismael Kone.
There is a clear case here that Madibo did not even make a challenge, that the injury happened by chance and not because of the nature of the tackle.
Yet Fifa handed Madibo a five-game ban – an extra three on top of the standard punishment for serious foul play.
The statistics are not a surprise to Umar Ali, who plays for Route One Rovers – a semi-professional team in Bradford.
During Ramadan last year, he was racially abused by a group of opposition spectators as he was waiting to come on as a substitute.
“It was our first game playing while we were fasting,” he said. “So obviously we were hungry that day and I was a bit less patient.
“Then when I was getting ready to come on, one of the fans said I should shave my beard off and that I looked like a paedophile.
“One of them picked up a child who was about six, seven years old, and said ‘I bet your wife’s the same age as this child’.”
Umar described the men as in their sixties.
“It’s quite distressing, because they’re older than my dad,” he added. “They’re my grandad’s age, and they felt comfortable enough to stand there and make comments like that.”
Umar said the assistant referee heard the comments and told the referee, who he claims did not take any action.
The police were eventually contacted and the spectators identified. Umar has not been informed of an outcome.
His manager Mohammed Patel was in the dugout during the match and said – while the opposition coaching staff apologised on behalf of their fans – he felt the officials fell short and should have removed those spectators shouting racist and Islamophobic abuse at his players.
Patel said: “It was a really emotional day for us, because the question we asked ourselves after that game is ‘Why is it still happening?’ Some of the things that were said were absolutely horrific.
“In my opinion, more needs to be done from the top down. We’re actively engaging and working with local FAs to try and navigate this problem, but it absolutely needs to be mandated.”
The Northern Counties East Football League fined the opposition club £300 and gave them nine disciplinary points. But Patel says that does not address the real problem.
“We’ve seen harsher punishments for violent conduct on the pitch or red cards, even administrative mistakes,” he added.
“Something as serious as this, we were absolutely not happy with the result.”
Patel has been lobbying the Football Association, but has not yet received a response.
He said: “Precedents need to be set, harsher sanctions need to be introduced. This comes from the top down.”
The FA said in a statement: “We have introduced tougher sanctions for clubs and individuals, a new behaviour improvement programme, and penalty points accumulation charges in the grassroots game.
“This builds on the steps taken to allow for deductions of league points from clubs that are repeated offenders of serious misconduct.”
Gymnast Ruby Evans has won Wales’ first Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow with victory in the floor final.
Evans, 19, performed the final routine of the women’s programme and defeated England’s Abigail Martin into silver, with her team-mate Shantae-Eve Amankwaah securing bronze.
Evans left the arena in tears on Sunday after her disappointing sixth in the all-round individual competition, that after Wales finished fourth in the team event.
Now, after Welsh identical twins Abigail and Emily Roper won bronze medals within a couple of hours of each other on Monday, Evans has delivered gold.
It was the first victory for Team Wales in Scotland and a ninth medal alongside two silver and six bronze.
There is also a guaranteed podium position for boxer Connor Williams after he reached the semi-finals.
An amateur cricket match has made global headlines after a fielder was accused of cheating by clicking his fingers to get a wicket.
The North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League has started an investigation into a second XI Division 2 game between Saltburn and Norton.
A viral video on social media appears to show a Saltburn fielder clicking his fingers as the ball passes Noman Shabir’s bat before being caught by wicketkeeper Josh Bowes. Saltburn appeal and the umpire gives Shabir out.
It has been suggested that the finger-clicking was designed to trick the umpire into thinking the batter edged the ball.
Saltburn won by 159 runs and are top of Division 2 by 17 points.
“The league have received a formal complaint regarding alleged incidents in a Division Two game on Saturday,” the league said in a statement on X.
“A full investigation has been initiated and until such time as the formal processes are complete no further comment will be made.”
Last week Bowes took eight catches in Saltburn’s 22-run win over Shildon Railway. The men’s Test record for catches by a keeper in an innings is seven.
Bowes leads the league standings with 31 catches, 10 more than any other player.
Rory Cotterill, who captained Middlesbrough second XI during a 29-run defeat by Saltburn last month, responded to a social media post containing the video and alleged two further incidents of cheating by Saltburn in that match.
The original video of the incident has had more than three million views on X, with publications in Australia and New Zealand among those to report it.
The BBC has contacted the league and Saltburn. Norton declined to comment.
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