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{"id":25606,"date":"2026-07-09T20:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/brussels-wants-action-over-trump-infantino-red-card-controversy\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:17:17","slug":"brussels-wants-action-over-trump-infantino-red-card-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/brussels-wants-action-over-trump-infantino-red-card-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels wants action over Trump-Infantino red card controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Seventy-two members of the European Parliament on Wednesday demanded an investigation into FIFA President Gianni Infantino after FIFA lifted the red card suspension of star U.S. striker Folarin Balogun <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/07\/06\/world-cup-2026\/inside-the-white-house-push-on-balogun-00987540\" target=\"_blank\">following a call from President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Last Thursday, Trump called Infantino to lobby for the automatic ban given to Balogun after receiving a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina to be overturned. Four days later, FIFA\u2019s disciplinary committee cleared Balogun to play in a crunch match against Belgium.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/08\/MEP-Letter-Calling-on-European-Football-Associations-to-Ensure-Investigation-into-FIFA-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a letter<\/a> sent to the national football federations of the EU\u2019s 27 member countries and obtained by Blue Light News, the lawmakers asked them to \u201cadd your voice to recent calls in support of an investigation\u201d into Infantino.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet us be clear: FIFA\u2019s decision to change the rule on red card suspension mid-tournament is a disgrace and perversion of justice,\u201d said Renew MEP Barry Andrews, who wrote the letter. \u201cOnce again, we\u2019ve seen Infantino and FIFA surrender to the demands of the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite Balogun taking part, the U.S. lost to a fired-up Belgium team, whose players <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/DIUxAVSC3hE\" target=\"_blank\">mocked Trump\u2019s dancing<\/a> after scoring their fourth goal in a 4-1 demolition of the host nation.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers argue that since FIFA imposes its ethics rules on the 27 member associations, they are similarly \u201cbound by FIFA\u2019s code of ethics to demand that senior FIFA officials be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter, but Infantino has previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/07\/06\/world-cup-2026\/infantino-trump-balogun-world-cup-00987710\" target=\"_blank\">denied influencing the committee\u2019s decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s letter is the third missive in two weeks from European lawmakers to the world football governing body. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/meps-fifa-investigate-gianni-infantino-donald-trump-peace-prize\/\" target=\"_blank\">Andrews wrote a letter<\/a> last week urging FIFA to investigate Infantino over alleged violations of the organization\u2019s own political neutrality rules, telling Blue Light News that FIFA was \u201cprofoundly corrupt.\u201d Two days later, fellow Renew MEP Petras Au\u0161trevi\u010dius <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/meps-fifa-gianni-infantino-russia-athletes-youth-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\">rebuked FIFA<\/a> over its decision to allow Russians to participate in the U-15 World Cup in October.<\/p>\n<p>The previous letters drew signatures from 50 and 44 MEPs, respectively, making the newest letter the most broadly supported push yet. The letter was signed by MEPs from six parliamentary groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot many issues can garner that level of bipartisan support,\u201d Andrews added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seventy-two members of the European Parliament on Wednesday demanded an investigation into FIFA President Gianni Infantino after FIFA lifted the red card suspension of star U.S. striker Folarin Balogun following a call from President Donald Trump. Last Thursday, Trump called Infantino to lobby for the automatic ban given to Balogun after receiving a red card [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}