La Liga president Javier Tebas has publicly attacked what he calls the "complicit silence" surrounding Fifa, after United States striker Folarin Balogun avoided suspension at the 2026 World Cup. Fifa's disciplinary committee chose to suspend Balogun's one-match ban for 12 months, allowing him to play in the last-16 tie against Belgium, which the US lost 4-1. The intervention matters because it has intensified an already tense standoff between Fifa and European football authorities over governance and transparency.

Uefa condemned the decision as "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable", but reaction from outside Europe was muted. The controversy is compounded by US president Donald Trump revealing he had asked Fifa to review the ban, and by his description of Brazilian referee Raphael Claus — who sent Balogun off against Bosnia-Herzegovina following a VAR review — as "a bit suspect". South American confederation Conmebol backed its referee but declined to criticise Fifa or Trump. Tebas called the case the "tip of the iceberg", accusing Fifa of operating as a closed shop that makes decisions without consulting domestic leagues and that erodes the credibility of the sport.