Will he play or not? Belgium challenge FIFA ruling on Balogun | OneFootball

After learning through the press of FIFA’s decision to lift the automatic suspension hanging over American player Balogun, the Belgian federation has announced that it will challenge the decision.

In a statement, published on Monday afternoon, the RBFA explains that FIFA has not responded to its requests. 

Instead, FIFA sent the RBFA a letter arguing that its written request actually constituted an appeal, that a judge had already been appointed, and that the Belgian federation had only a few hours to submit it. No further information was provided.

Under FIFA’s own regulations, for an appeal to be admissible, the reasoned decision must first have been notified to the appellant. The RBFA says it was only seeking legitimate explanations; according to the Belgians, it was FIFA that turned it into an appeal and then immediately made sure it would be inadmissible.

Belgium maintains that, at the match coordination meeting, FIFA deliberately removed from its presentation the item concerning the automatic suspension of players, an issue that had appeared in the previous meetings before the four earlier matches. The RBFA asked both in writing and verbally for the reasons behind the change, but received no answer.

As of today, the RBFA still has not received any decision or explanation from FIFA on this matter, which is why it has now announced that it will challenge the player’s eligibility for the next match.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

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