Asking the Wrong Question about FIFA's Balogun Reversal
The controversy of FIFA's decision to reinstate Folarin Balogun for tonight's match against Belgium has raised important questions... and one unimportant one, too.
I woke up this morning and scanned some of the reactions to FIFA’s shocking decision yesterday to suspend the suspension of Folarin Balogun, the United States men’s national team’s star forward, who was sent off in the game against Bosnia and Herzegovina. By rule, Balogun was automatically suspended from tonight’s match with Belgium, and FIFA’s leadership was very clear that the decision could not be appealed. And then on Sunday, FIFA’s leadership announced it had changed its mind.
Most of the takes were predictable, but one from The Athletic struck me as quite annoying. Amid a roundup of World Cup news, they asked the question, Should the USMNT feel bad about Balogun?
That’s, um, the wrong question to ask.
The problem with this question is that it seems to stem from a peculiar strain of thought lurking in our culture today. The thinking has two parts: 1) objecting to injustice is tantamount to thinking someone should feel bad about benefiting from the injustice, and 2) thinking people should feel bad is itself bad (and probably even worse than the injustice itself).
Thus, instead of writing an article about the fairness or unfairness of FIFA’s decision, what it means for the game or for the USMNT, The Athletic invents the idea that some people might consider the USMNT players or coaches themselves to be culpable for FIFA’s decision, and then The Athletic rushes in to assert that these poor fellows have nothing to be ashamed of.
O…..k…..
As you might have guessed by now, this is something of a pet peeve of mine. It frustrates me because it amounts to a type of personal responsibility shell game. When something uncomfortable, shameful, or embarrassing occurs, those who don’t want to reckon with it will often try to obscure the issue by focusing on tangentially related third parties and treating any objection to the wrong action as some kind of implicit or explicit attack on the third party.
These days we see this kind of approach in politics, history, popular culture, middle school classrooms… seemingly everywhere.
The truth is, the responsibility tree is not complicated.
The responsibility for the action that led to the red card lies with Balogun. Even if you think the action did not warrant a red card—that at worst he was a bit careless—he still is responsible for his own carelessness.
The responsibility for punishing Balogun with a red card lies with the referee. Right or wrong, he is the one that made the decision.
If there was political interference (and multiple outlets suggest there was), then the responsibility for that interference lies with those who interfered.
If FIFA did not follow its own rules or interpreted its rules in ways that were influenced by factors other than the integrity of the game, then the responsibility for those actions lies with FIFA.
None of the above should be complicated. And yet, articles like The Athletic’s make it seem that way. What’s worse, though, is that it distracts from the underlying point: the decision mars what could be an incredible run by our national team.
A much better article came from a different writer at The Athletic. In his commentary, Nick Miller outlines how FIFA’s decision “damages the integrity” of the World Cup. By making the decision it made, and by doing so without offering any kind of justification or explanation, FIFA is creating the impression that the USMNT might be getting special treatment. A World Cup that has been almost universally lauded as spectacular on the pitch now has a shadow cast over it.
It’s also bad for the USMNT, in particular. As others have pointed out, the US had become a favorite of many disinterested third parties, owing in part to its underdog status and in part to the goodwill generated by the host cities. Now, though, the team has become politicized in a way that will be difficult to overcome. What if we beat Belgium thanks to a Balogun goal?
FIFA just appended an asterisk to any USMNT victory tonight. It doesn’t make me feel bad, but it does not feel good, either.