{"id":4375,"date":"2026-07-24T14:16:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/?p=4375"},"modified":"2026-07-24T14:16:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:16:59","slug":"norway-to-file-formal-president-trump-complaint-over-serious-breach-of-world-cup-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/?p=4375","title":{"rendered":"Norway to file formal President Trump complaint over ‘serious’ breach of World Cup rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norway is preparing to file a formal complaint with FIFA after President Donald Trump’s involvement in the decision to overturn Folarin Balogun’s World Cup suspension. As widely reported, the 25-year-old received a red card during the United States’ victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 2. Although the striker was initially suspended for the knockout stages, the decision was later overturned, allowing him to feature against Belgium in the last 16. Trump later admitted that he contacted FIFA president Gianni Infantino to discuss the case, and celebrated the outcome by describing it as the reversal of “a great injustice” on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

\"Norway<\/p>\n

Norway says football crossed a dangerous line Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation, has been one of FIFA’s most vocal critics and believes the Balogun decision raises concerns about the independence of football’s governing bodies. The 45-year-old, who has already slammed FIFA for awarding its inaugural Peace Prize to the US president, described the latest controversy as “so serious and so worrying”. “To try to sweep this under the carpet now will not fly,” she said.<\/p>\n

In an interview with\u00a0The Times, she warned that allowing outside political influence to shape disciplinary decisions could have lasting consequences for the sport.<\/p>\n

“When you bend a rule like this, you’re on a slippery slope that will put the whole game at risk. It is a worry for the game when you compromise fundamental rules of the game,” she said.<\/p>\n

She continued: “First of all, it should not have happened. It is very important now to have honest communication around it. We all know that this verdict was influenced from external forces and did not have the proper process.<\/p>\n

“We need our leader in FIFA to say that this was an error. If you start to adapt in such a way towards state leaders and state politics, you will move your behaviour and the organisation’s behaviour, and also the red line of what states’ leaders should interfere with. And that happened,” she added.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/picture><\/div>\n
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The president of the Norwegian Football Federation believes the Balogun red card decision raises concerns about the independence of football’s governing bodies. Credit: Al Sermeno\/ISI Photos \/ Getty<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Complaint could be expanded<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Klaveness has suggested that, pending approval from the Norwegian federation’s board, she plans to add the Balogun case to an existing complaint concerning FIFA’s decision to award Trump its inaugural Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

If approved, the complaint will be referred to FIFA’s independent ethics committee to look at whether any rules were broken.<\/p>\n

The fallout has prompted Infantino to publicly defend the organization’s disciplinary procedures and address his conversation with the 80-year-old president.<\/p>\n

“FIFA’s judicial bodies are independent,” Infantino said, per\u00a0The Mirror.<\/p>\n

“They operate autonomously, apply the FIFA Disciplinary Code, and decide cases based on the applicable regulations and the specific facts before them. Their independence is essential to the credibility and integrity of football, and this must always be respected.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Trump has insisted that he did not attempt to pressure FIFA into a particular outcome.<\/p>\n

“All I did was ask for a review. I didn’t say, you have to do this,” he explained at the time.<\/p>\n

“This man is a smart, tough man, Gianni Infantino. He’s a smart, tough man, and his stock has gone through the roof because the job he has done has been great. I feel like we have to have all the best players on the field.”<\/p>\n

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\"Lise<\/picture><\/div>\n
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Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation, has been one of FIFA’s most vocal critics. Credit: Eva Marie Uzcategui – FIFA \/ Getty<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Balogun addresses the decision<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During a recent interview on CBS Mornings,\u00a0Balogun reflected on the red card saga\u00a0and admitted he quickly realized the decision would have wider consequences.<\/p>\n

“My initial reaction was that I was happy to be back in the team,” he said. “But when I started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy.”<\/p>\n

He added that the situation appeared to affect those around him.<\/p>\n

“And I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it’s something that is so unique. But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could but it was difficult – a lot of outside noise and that’s hard to avoid,” he added.<\/p>\n

The Team USA star also described how confusing the days leading up to the match became after initially preparing to miss the game.<\/p>\n

“It was confusing because the team was practicing without me in the team, I’m almost just playing a supporting role to keep morale high.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norway is preparing to file a formal complaint with FIFA after President Donald Trump’s involvement in the decision to overturn Folarin Balogun’s World Cup suspension. As widely reported, the 25-year-old … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,21,22,1,5,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aita","category-daily-article","category-reddit-stories","category-story","category-story-daily","category-viral-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4376,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4375\/revisions\/4376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}