Norway FA chief pushes ethics complaint over Balogun ban call
Lise Klaveness says she will ask Norway’s football board to act after FIFA suspended Folarin Balogun’s automatic World Cup ban.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Norway’s football boss wants FIFA dragged into an ethics fight over the decision that let Folarin Balogun play in the United States’ World Cup knockout win over Belgium.
Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation, told The Times she plans to ask her board to pursue a formal ethics complaint after FIFA’s disciplinary committee suspended Balogun’s automatic one-match ban.
Balogun had been sent off against Bosnia-Herzegovina, a red card that normally brings a one-game suspension. FIFA’s disciplinary committee paused that ban, clearing the U.S. striker to appear in the round of 16 against Belgium, according to ESPN News Services.
Klaveness told The Times that FIFA president Gianni Infantino should publicly acknowledge the decision was wrong. She said “we all know” the ruling was affected by outside pressure and lacked the proper process.
Trump call under scrutiny
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters before the Belgium match that he had asked Infantino to review Balogun’s red card, according to ESPN News Services.
The decision came after a phone call between Trump and Infantino. Trump later said FIFA had made a “great decision.” Infantino has said FIFA’s judicial bodies act independently.
Klaveness was blunt in her criticism. “When you bend a rule like this, you're on a slippery slope that will put the whole game at risk,” she told The Times. “It is a worry for the game when you compromise fundamental rules of the game.”
She added that FIFA needed to be open about what happened, saying the ruling should not have occurred and that the organization’s leader should say it was an error.
One-person ruling raises alarms
Klaveness also challenged the way the case was handled. Sources told ESPN that FIFA disciplinary committee chair Mohammad Al Kamali made the decision to suspend Balogun’s ban on his own, a detail first reported by The Times.
Klaveness told The Times that a case facing outside pressure needed more than one decision-maker. “When there has been an external, very powerful voice in your ear, it's very important that you have more voices making the decision,” she said.
She said trying to bury the matter would fail because many people in football had been disturbed by it. Klaveness said she would take the issue to an NFF board meeting and discuss next steps, adding that, in her view, it belongs in the area of an ethics complaint.
According to The Times, Klaveness wants the Balogun case added to an existing ethics complaint linked to FIFA’s Peace Prize being awarded to Trump.
Her comments follow a separate complaint to the International Olympic Committee alleging Infantino breached rules on political neutrality in his dealings with Trump, according to ESPN News Services.
This story draws on original reporting from ESPN.com.