There is one important question that many people are asking right now. How?
Fifa’s disciplinary rules state that Balogun should be banned for “at least two matches for gross misconduct”.
Of course, the rules of the World Cup do not allow teams to argue with a red card.
Fifa’s statement did not give a reason or explanation for suspending Balogun. It recently cited “article 27 of the Fifa disciplinary code”.
Article 27 allows FIFA to “fully or partially suspend the initiation of disciplinary action”.
It is a broad rule that allows Fifa to effectively make any decision it wants without meeting any other criteria.
Section 27 has never been used in the World Cup.
Furthermore, Balogun’s ban is only for one game, not two according to the disciplinary code. This has not been explained.
BBC Sport asked why this happened.
But we were not given any consideration. We are simply directed to Cristiano Ronaldo’s suspended suspension ahead of this tournament.
Under Fifa’s disciplinary rules, Ronaldo should have received a three-match ban for elbowing Dara O’Shea during Portugal’s 2-0 qualifier defeat to the Republic of Ireland in November.
He played one game in the final qualifier against Armenia – but the remaining two games of the ban were lifted.
Ronaldo’s red card was received in the qualifying match. It was not a red card in the World Cup.
There have been many cases of players being shown to be relaxed before the tournament, not just Ronaldo.
See Laurent Koscielny of France in 2014, or Moises Caicedo of Ecuador and Nicolas Otamendi of Argentina before the World Cup.
At least with Ronaldo, we were given some reasons, as Fifa said it had taken into account that “he had no red cards in his other 225 international matches”.
With Balogun, we did not get that.
It left the challenge of information that could lead to speculation.
Why was this a special story? What factors were considered? Who made the decision?
BBC Sport was told there were no suggestions that the referee had asked for the video stoppage to be lifted, or that the assistant referee’s system had not been respected.
In England, the Football Association will publish the full written reasons.
The United States has the right to ask FIFA to publish it, Belgium does not.
BBC Sport pundit Micah Richards, a former England defender, said it was ridiculous.
“The fact that it has been suspended for a whole year makes the whole tournament a joke,” he said.
“Which is to keep the big stars in the competition. How is that possible? Fifa must do better.
“It left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.”
Belgium, of course, is angry. They released a statement on Sunday saying they were “surprised” that Balogun was allowed to play.
The Belgian FA discussed a number of rules, workshop presentations and coordination meetings ahead of the tournament.
They maintain that this decision is against the rules of the tournament which state that the player will be “automatically suspended from his team’s match”.
In fact, they say that FIFA used its disciplinary rules to violate the rules of the tournament.
Belgium coach Rudi Garcia, speaking at a press conference, went further. He said: “I didn’t know that.” [at] the July 5th FIFA World Cup is now April 1st, and that’s April Fool’s.
“We are not defending the national team or the federation, we are defending football.”
What must the other players who were eliminated from the tournament think?
Take Qatar’s Asim Madibo, who was involved in an unfortunate incident that left Canadian midfielder Ismael Kone with a broken leg.
There is a clear case here that Madibo did not even challenge, that the injury happened by chance and not because of the rolling situation.
However, Fifa handed Madibo a five-match ban – three more on top of the standard penalty for foul play.
