Norway plans FIFA ethics complaint over Balogun suspension reversal

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Norway’s top football official has told The Times that the Norwegian Football Federation intends to file a formal protest with FIFA over the decision to lift Folarin Balogun’s World Cup suspension, arguing the move has placed “the whole game at risk”.

Lise Klaveness, who leads the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF), said she will ask her board at an August 6 meeting to support lodging the matter with FIFA’s ethics committee, describing the episode as something that “should not have happened”.

Speaking to AFP, Klaveness said the plan is to “include the Balogun affair” within an ethics complaint the NFF has already submitted concerning FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s decision to give the governing body’s first Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump — an award that drew widespread mockery.

“I will bring it to a board meeting and discuss with my board, and then we do it,” Klaveness told The Times in an interview that appeared on Thursday. “To me, it should be in the same sphere of ethical complaint.”

Trump’s role in the Balogun dispute fuelled the furore. The Monaco and United States striker was sent off in the round-of-32 victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina and faced an automatic one-match ban for the Belgium fixture. FIFA then halted that suspension, prompting sharp criticism that intensified after reports that Trump had telephoned Infantino about the case. Belgium went on to overwhelm the co-hosts 4-1.

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

“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.”

“We need our leader in FIFA to say that this was an error,” she added.

Klaveness, a former Norway international who has led the NFF since 2022, warned that yielding to a head of state sets a perilous example.

“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,” she said. “And that happened.”

She was also critical of reporting in The Times that the ban lift was decided only by Mohammad al-Kamali, chair of FIFA’s disciplinary committee, without input from the rest of the panel.

“When you make controversial decisions, and 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. “And if you don’t, it’s a mistake.”

Klaveness insisted the matter cannot simply be closed and ignored.

“To try to sweep this under the carpet now will not fly,” said the 45-year-old lawyer. “Too many felt this… coaches, players, fans… that this was too close to the game.”

While stating she will not challenge Infantino for the FIFA presidency next year, Klaveness also rejected a South American push to grow the World Cup from 48 to 64 sides. Norway reached the finals for the first time in 28 years before falling to England in the last eight.

“Smaller nations like ourselves, that haven’t been there for 20 years, showed the World Cup could be extended to 48 teams,” she said. “It’s not in football’s interest, or even reasonable, to now start to talk about 64 teams — 48 teams was a big change.

“If you bring the discussion now to 64, and powerful people say it, you will create distrust.

“The World Cup should not interfere with the domestic leagues, or the confederations, more than it does today.”