🔥 A red line and unjustifiable, UEFA hits out over Balogun case
· Yahoo Sports
Open war at the top of world football. UEFA has issued an extremely harsh official statement against FIFA following the controversial decision to suspend the red-card sanction against U.S. forward Folarin Balogun.
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The European governing body was unequivocal in saying that the measure "has crossed a red line" and casts doubt on the fairness of the tournament.
This clash is not an isolated incident, but rather the highest point of a historic tension between the two institutions over control of the international calendar and television revenue. However, it is the first time in the modern era that UEFA has directly accused FIFA of breaking the sporting regulations in the middle of a major competition in favor of one of its stars.
For the European confederation, the automatic one-match suspension following a sending-off is a sacred rule that allows for neither interpretations nor exceptions.
The body states that applying this amnesty in the middle of the tournament breaks the principle of equality, warning that "when the certainty of the rules is no longer guaranteed by their guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of the competition is undermined".
UEFA recalls that football is the most beloved sport on the planet because it is governed by the same laws everywhere. For that reason, it laments the impact of this measure on the World Cup stage and expresses its "disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision", opening a political and institutional rift with unpredictable consequences for the future of refereeing and global football.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.