FIFA have opened up a can of worms after rescinding Folarin Balogun’s suspension at the 2026 World Cup.
After impressing for large parts of their World Cup campaign, all of the shine has now been taken away from the USMNT due to Donald Trump’s request involving Folarin Balogun.
Gianni Infantino confirmed he received a phone call from Trump lobbying for Balogun, but he maintained that FIFA’s disciplinary committee acted autonomously when it dynamically paused the suspension.
FIFA then threw out Belgium’s counter-appeal as completely inadmissible, ruling the Belgian federation had no formal standing to challenge the decision.
The co-hosts crash OUT of the World Cup
What will Donald Trump have to say to get them out of this one? 👀
But the whole situation has opened the door for pundits, other nations and former players to make requests from the past.
This has seen Germany legend Oliver Kahn make a couple of suggestions to FIFA.
Oliver Kahn wants 2002 World Cup decision reversed
In the 2002 World Cup semifinal against South Korea, Michael Ballack was given a yellow card for a tactical foul. Because it was his second booking of the knockout stages, tournament rules triggered an automatic suspension that cruelly ruled him out of the final against Brazil.
The incident is still fresh in the mind of Oliver Kahn, who made a suggestion that FIFA should overturn the decision on his X account after seeing the incident at the 2026 World Cup.
‘If we’re rewriting football history now, I have a small suggestion: I’d like FIFA to rescind the yellow card shown to Michael Ballack in the 2002 World Cup semifinal, the one that ruled him out of the final. And while we’re at it, we might as well replay the final against Brazil.’
The 2002 World Cup final in Yokohama saw Brazil defeat Germany 2-0 to claim their fifth title. With Ballack suspended, Germany fought hard, but Ronaldo capitalized on a rare Oliver Kahn handling error to break the deadlock before adding a second to seal the victory.
Not in a million years would FIFA ever consider something like this, but it’s a funny request from Kahn.
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