The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) says it is still waiting for Fifa to explain why USA striker Folarin Balogun was allowed to play against Belgium at the World Cup despite a suspended red-card ban, and has asked for the matter to be added to the agenda of the next Fifa Council meeting. The issue was one of the most contentious of the tournament, prompting criticism from Uefa and others after it emerged that US President Donald Trump and White House officials had lobbied Fifa over the decision, and it has now fed into wider unease about Fifa president Gianni Infantino's leadership.

Balogun's one-match ban, triggered by a straight red card, was suspended for a year by Fifa under a rarely used disciplinary provision, allowing him to start and help the co-hosts to a 4-1 defeat by Belgium in the last 16; Belgium went on to lose to Spain in the quarter-finals. It was only the second time in World Cup history, after Brazil's Garrincha in 1962, that a red card did not result in a suspension being served, and Fifa has never fully explained its reasoning. The RBFA, led by president Pascale van Damme, says it will not back Infantino's re-election bid in March, citing both the Balogun case and the scrapped plan to sell stakes in Fifa competitions as reasons, joining a growing list of associations opposing his continued tenure.