RBFA: FIFA Confirms Article 27 Amendment After Balogun Red Card Row

FIFA to revise rule after Balogun ban controversy

FIFA will amend Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code after the Belgian Football Association challenged the decision to suspend Folarin Balogun's automatic World Cup ban.

Balogun controversy forces FIFA to rewrite article 27 of its disciplinary code after RBFA pressure...

FIFA will amend its disciplinary rules following the controversy over its decision to suspend USA forward Folarin Balogun's automatic World Cup ban, the Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said on Thursday after raising the issue with football's governing body.

The move comes after criticism of FIFA's decision to suspend Balogun's automatic one-match ban for a red card, which allowed the striker to feature against Belgium in their last-16 tie.

US President Donald Trump said he had personally asked FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review the sanction, raising questions about the independence of the disciplinary process.

After Thursday's FIFA Council meeting in Zurich, RBFA president and FIFA Council member Pascale Van Damme said the governing body would revise Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code, which allows a disciplinary sanction to be suspended in exceptional circumstances.

The proposed amendment will be put forward for approval at the next FIFA Council meeting in Doha on December 16, the Belgian federation said.

“FIFA’s confirmation that Article 27 will be amended, following the request we had already submitted in July, is an important step. The proposed amendment, together with an explanation of the specific circumstances of the Balogun case, will be submitted in Doha,” Van Damme said.

The RBFA had sought clarification from FIFA over the circumstances around the decision, saying it had not received satisfactory explanations about how Article 27 was applied or what criteria would govern similar cases.

The RBFA also asked FIFA to provide assurances that there was no external interference in the disciplinary proceedings, to explain the exceptional circumstances that justified the use of Article 27, and to guarantee that member associations would have the right to be heard in future disciplinary cases.

FIFA are set to change the rules that led to Flo Balogun’s World Cup red card being suspended, sources in Zurich have told talkSPORT. On the agenda is a motion to amend FIFA rules to stop suspensions of automatic one-match bans in future tournaments. Viewed as Infantino, who claims he played no role in the decision, addressing the scandal. That’s despite taking a call with Donald Trump, who asked for the sending off to be reviewed, as exclusively reported on @talkSPORT. Infantino’s critics still want all correspondence shared from the incident.🟥

— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) October 14, 2026

According to the RBFA, FIFA responded by stressing that all decisions are taken independently by its judicial bodies and confirmed that work was already underway to amend Article 27.

The Belgian federation had asked for the Balogun case to be placed on the agenda for Thursday's Council meeting as it sought greater transparency over the process.