The Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) intends to file a formal complaint to FIFA over U.S. President Donald Trump's role in U.S. men's national team striker Folarin Balogun's red card suspension reversal.
"This case was so serious and so worrying that I hope that it might contribute to bring people out a little bit and don't fear to bring up cases," NFF president Lise Klaveness said in an interview with The Times of London.
"I will bring it to a board meeting and discuss with my board, and then we do it (file the complaint)."
Balogun was at the center of a chaotic situation surrounding the USMNT's World Cup round of 16 match against Belgium earlier this month.
After receiving a red card in the USA'S 2-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round
of 32, Balogun was set to serve an automatic one-game suspension in the Belgium match.
But FIFA made a stunning last-minute decision to allow Balogun to play against Belgium, saying that the forward's suspension had been suspended for a probationary period of one year.
The move was already contentious, but the controversy reached another level when Trump revealed he pushed FIFA president Gianni Infantino to reverse the suspension.
Infantino has insisted that Trump did not influence FIFA's Disciplinary Committee, which operates independently.
Balogun has admitted that the controversy surrounding the decision negatively impacted the USMNT, which lost 4-1 to Belgium despite having its star striker available for the game.
Klaveness charged that the decision was "influenced from external forces" and called on Infantino to say that the reversal was a mistake.
"First of all, it should not have happened. It is very important now to have honest communication around it," Klaveness said. "We all know that this verdict was influenced from external forces and did not have the proper process.
"We need our leader in FIFA to say that this was an error."
The Ethics Committee is one of FIFA’s independent judicial bodies. Its primary responsibility is investigating possible infringements of the FIFA Code of Ethics. It has a nine-person investigatory chamber and a nine-person adjudicatory chamber.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Norway FA to file FIFA complaint over Trump role in Balogun ban reversal
