KANSAS CITY — It was half a smart play by Fifa. Revisit the case, adjust the tariff, double down. You might say Jarell Quansah paid the price for Fifa’s egregious (mis)management of the Folarin Balogun case.
Balogun, you may remember, was sent off for serious foul play, handed a two-match ban and was going fishing before Donald Trump picked up the phone to his valet, Fifa president Gianni Infantino, to protest injustice.
The exact process that led from the Trump call to Balogun’s reprieve is buried in mystery, protected by a regulation that allows Fifa’s disciplinary committee to revisit cases without explanation or account.
However, by upgrading Quansah’s red card offence to serious foul play and doubling his ban from one to two matches Fifa’s shadowy order could plausibly claim equivalence of process, namely that they went back over the evidence in the same way to ensure the “correct” outcome was reached and appropriate sanction applied.
To which most right-minded folk would call bullshit and roll their eyes. The FA made their position clear, pointing out that when the referee went to the VAR screen to make his initial judgement he based his decision on still images which is against established protocols.
