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FIFA boss Gianni Infantino broke the global soccer body’s own rules and fixed the scrapping of USMNT star Folarin Balogun’s World Cup red card during a phone call with President Donald Trump, four sources briefed on the matter told The Post.
The Swiss-Italian sports chief agreed to quash the forward’s suspension, breaching the global organization’s own disciplinary code, in talks with the commander-in-chief on July 1, the four FIFA insiders said.
“He told President Trump that he would take care of it. One call and it was done,” one of the sources told The Post.
Balogun was sent off during his side’s match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, meaning he would have been ineligible for the key clash against Belgium without Infantino’s extraordinary intervention.
He previously claimed that he had no involvement with the decision.
It could put fresh pressure on Infantino, who angered soccer fans and federations alike when he secretly struck a deal to sell off FIFA’s commercial rights to Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital.
The Post broke the story that the plan had been scrapped amid the outrage as Infantino eyes a fourth term at the top of global soccer in FIFA’s presidential election this March.
Leaked documents obtained by The Post show the shadowy Zurich-based organization is quietly rewriting its disciplinary code.
Late Tuesday night, just 36 hours before a high-stakes crisis summit in Switzerland, the non-profit’s top brass sent a draft code change that forbids FIFA legal panels from suspending automatic one-game bans for red cards.
In an accompanying memo, FIFA officials claimed the rewrite is needed to ensure stability and protect the integrity of competitions.
Critics inside European soccer federations say the midnight filing is an admission of guilt. They view the rule change as a retroactive attempt to cover up Infantino’s meddling in the Folarin Balogun case after outreach from President Donald Trump.
Ironically, Balogun, who was also eligible to play for England and Nigeria, obtained birthright citizenship that the administration says it wants to ban.
“All presidents and prime ministers hosting a World Cup would want to ask for a favor to be done in this situation,” said one soccer insider. “But the corruption is purely Infantino’s because he had to say: ‘We can’t change the rules, Mr President.”
After Trump contacted Infantino about the punishment, FIFA’s disciplinary panel took the unprecedented step of suspending the ban, allowing Balogun to play in the next 4-1 defeat against Belgium.
The decision sparked fury across Europe. Last week, Norwegian soccer boss Lise Klaveness filed an ethics complaint accusing Infantino of breaking political neutrality rules, citing both the US red card reprieve and Infantino’s creation of a FIFA peace prize for Trump.
Now, internal memos circulating among soccer bigwigs show FIFA’s leadership is trying to pretend its rulebook had a loophole all along.
“There was never a doubt nor lack of clarity on how the automatic suspension following a red card is to be served,” states an internal briefing document circulated ahead of Thursday’s meeting. “This is a way for FIFA to cure the handling of the Balogun case during the World Cup.”
A package of historical directives attached to the briefing shows FIFA has banned exceptions to one-game red card suspensions for more than 20 years.
FIFA circulars from 2002, 2003 and 2005 reviewed by The Post state that mandatory one-game bans can only be waived if a referee cards the wrong player by mistake.
Even an Oct. 22, 2002, memo from US Soccer warned American leagues that associations cannot pass exceptional rules to avoid mandatory red card bans.
The rulebook fight adds to a growing revolt against Infantino by European soccer leaders ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
UEFA threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments over Infantino’s secret push for a $20 billion commercial privatization deal involving Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and his brother Joshua Kushner’s firm, Thrive Capital.
UEFA, which is also based in Switzerland, later went to federal court in Florida seeking subpoenas against Thrive Capital as Infantino skipped a planned Hamptons meeting with financiers. Its attorneys believe the FIFA chief may have broken Swiss law.
The Times of London reported on Tuesday that tax filings showed a US World Cup subsidiary paid Infantino an undeclared $1.76 million in 2024, including more than $620,000 for a luxury Miami housing allowance, alongside a $3.57 million FIFA lease for an empty office in Manhattan’s Trump Tower.
This newspaper has reported how Infantino has been crisscrossing the globe in a Qatar-registered private jet in a bid to shore up his position, even dipping into FIFA funds to pay for his own PR.
The Post has sought comment from FIFA.