By Ossian Shine
NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters) - British politicians dragged FIFA’s Folarin Balogun controversy into England’s World Cup campaign on Monday, urging world soccer’s governing body to grant defender Jarell Quansah the same disciplinary reprieve given to the U.S. striker while a UK parliamentary committee demanded answers over the original ruling.
The English FA is considering options regarding any appeal, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, while FIFA did not respond to multiple
Reuters requests for comment on whether Quansah’s case would be considered under the same Article 27 provision.
The affair has become the tournament’s biggest controversy after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly admitted that he contacted FIFA head Gianni Infantino over Balogun’s suspension.
While Infantino said he told the U.S. president that FIFA’s judicial bodies would decide the case independently, Balogun’s reprieve has fuelled allegations from football authorities and politicians across Europe that political pressure may have influenced football’s disciplinary process.
The British MPs' intervention marks the first attempt to invoke the Balogun ruling on behalf of another player, potentially turning a decision FIFA says was made by its judicial bodies into a broader test of whether the same approach will now be applied consistently.
In separate letters posted on social media platforms, Labour MPs Noah Law and Melanie Onn asked Infantino to defer Quansah’s automatic one-match suspension following Sunday's red card against Mexico until after the World Cup, citing FIFA’s decision on Balogun as a precedent.
Like Balogun, Quansah faces an automatic one-match suspension after being sent off in England’s 3-2 victory at the Azteca Stadium.
“Whilst I believe it was right for Jarell Quansah to have received his red card … I believe it would be right to delay his suspension until after the completion of this World Cup,” Law wrote.
STRONG CASE
Onn said there was a strong case for deferring Quansah’s suspension, adding that it would be difficult to justify one player benefiting from a delayed ban while another in materially similar circumstances could not.
Both MPs argued FIFA risked undermining confidence in its disciplinary system unless its rules were applied consistently.
Separately, Caroline Dinenage, Chair of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, called on FIFA to urgently explain its decision to suspend Balogun’s ban.
“England’s inspirational victory in the early hours showed the World Cup at its very best, but this ruling by FIFA is threatening to cast a dark shadow on a tournament that should be a worldwide celebration of football,” Dinenage said.
“For sport to mean anything, its rules and laws must be applied equally to all teams. FIFA needs to come out urgently and explain the basis of its decision and address the suggestions that there may have been political interference in the process.”
FIFA has said its judicial bodies acted independently in the Balogun case.
England are due to play Norway in the quarter-finals in Miami on Saturday.
(Editing by Julien Pretot and Ed Osmond)
