USA striker missed no matches after sending-off
‘Far too often now decisions are viewed as corrupt’
Howard Webb was “really troubled” by the decision of Fifa’s disciplinary committee to suspend Folarin Balogun’s ban for a red card during the World Cup, warning of a growing belief in refereeing conspiracies among supporters. Webb, English football’s chief refereeing officer, was speaking before the new Premier League season, where, among a series of new measures, independent assessments of key refereeing decisions are to be made public for the first time.
“I was really troubled by it,” Webb said of the reprieve for the USA striker Balogun, which followed a direct appeal from the US president, Donald Trump. “What do we know? We know for sure that a red card was shown. I understand why it was given. We know that there was pressure placed by a politician on to Fifa, because that was admitted. And we know that the suspension was taken away for that particular tournament and suspended through a process which seemingly didn’t exist before the tournament started.”
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