The Group of Copenhagen has raised seven notices about possible match manipulation from potential betting irregularities in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including the overturning of Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension.
Balogun was expected to be suspended for the United States’ Round of 16 game against Belgium, but his red card from their Round of 32 win was overturned after intervention from President Donald Trump.
Betting market activity over the Balogun situation and other potential issues has been raised by the independent international network dedicated to detecting, sanctioning, and preventing the manipulation of sports competitions.
Folarin Balogun’s World Cup suspension had a betting twist to it
The Athletic reports that the Group of Copenhagen’s report flagged Polymarket opening a betting market around the potential of Balogun’s one-game suspension getting overturned, as this was the only instance of them taking bets on this despite there being 14 red cards handed out up to that point.
“The findings, sources say, also detailed how Polymarket opened a market on July 2 asking, ‘Will Folarin Balogun play against Belgium?’ That was opened on the same day the U.S. forward was shown a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last-32 stage.”
“FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee only confirmed that Balogun would be available to play, having had his ban suspended, on July 5. Sources say the Group of Copenhagen’s report said no other such markets were opened for the other 14 players who were shown a red card during the tournament, none of whom had bans suspended.”
What were the other issues raised by this World Cup report?
The Athletic also raised the red card shown to South Africa’s Themba Zwane in the tournament-opening game, Polymarket receiving $4.8 million (£3.6m) on markets for Spain not to defeat Cape Verde in their group-stage game, and a three-and-a-half-minute delay from the video assistant referee (VAR) team to disallow a goal from Spain’s Ferran Torres in its 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia
FIFA’s Integrity Task Force has claimed that ‘no suspicious betting activity or indications of match manipulation in connection with any fixture’ had been identified across the entirety of the competition.
The Group of Copenhagen operates under the Council of Europe’s Macolin Convention, a multilateral treaty which seeks to address fixing by changing international law. They have shared their report with FIFA and will expect clarification on these yellow notices.
Whether this is a situation to be worried about remains to be seen, but these instances should be thoroughly investigated to ensure the integrity of the sport remains uncompromised.
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