Norway’s Fifa Complaint Would Test a Body Infantino Reshaped

Norway’s football federation is preparing to formally accuse Fifa’s own president of breaking the sport’s rules over a World Cup phone call from Donald Trump. The federation’s board meets August 6 to decide whether to file the complaint, which centers on Folarin Balogun’s deferred red card ban.

Any ruling on that complaint would come from an ethics apparatus that Fifa president Gianni Infantino has already reshaped once. Nearly a decade ago, Fifa removed the independent investigator and judge who had cleared him of wrongdoing, and the body that replaced them has stayed largely silent on politically charged cases ever since.

Klaveness Wants Fifa’s Boss to Call It an Error

Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF), is a lawyer, a judge, a former Norway international at the Women’s World Cup, and an elected member of Uefa’s executive committee. She has positioned the federation as something close to a conscience for world soccer since taking office in 2022.

“We need our leader in Fifa to say that this was an error,” she told the Times in an interview published Thursday.

Her board will weigh the complaint at its next meeting, expected August 6. Klaveness said the Balogun matter belongs “in the same sphere of ethical complaint” as a case Norway already has open with Fifa. “I will bring it to a board meeting and discuss with my board, and then we do it,” she said.

The Phone Call That Undid a Balogun Ban

Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute of the July 1 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, for a foul on defender Tarik Muharemovic. Under Fifa’s own regulations, that red card carried an automatic one match suspension.

Trump called Infantino directly. Days later, the ban was deferred and Balogun started against Belgium with a quarterfinal place at stake.

Belgium won 4-1, in a performance that looked fueled by the fury around the decision. Trump called the red card, upheld after video review, a “horrible” call, and took credit for pushing Fifa to reconsider a punishment that would routinely have kept Balogun out for one game.

• 64th minute – when Balogun was sent off against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Zero – the number of red card suspensions Fifa is reported to have reversed at a World Cup in the past 60 years before this one.
• 4-1 – Belgium’s win over the United States once Balogun returned to the lineup.
• 36 hours – the span of chaos at the tournament between the review and Belgium’s win, by one account of the saga.

Klaveness argues the process itself was corrupted, not just the outcome. “We all know that this verdict was influenced from external forces and did not have the proper process,” she told the Times, of a ruling she called unprecedented in six decades of World Cup history.

Two Ethics Complaints Now Point at One Target

Norway already has a complaint sitting before Fifa’s ethics committee. The federation filed it jointly with FairSquare, a London-based human rights non-governmental organization (NGO), after Infantino handed Trump the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize in December.

“The issue is that FIFA, through its president, has violated rules regarding political neutrality by awarding this peace prize,” Klaveness told Norwegian outlet NRK. She has since called on Fifa to scrap the award entirely.

Infantino has spent months defending his closeness with Trump, including giving the president a role in the World Cup trophy ceremony as scrutiny mounted around both men.

FairSquare has now taken a second complaint to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has held jurisdiction over Infantino since he joined its more than 100 member body in 2020. That complaint cites several earlier instances of alleged political favoritism, then adds the Balogun intervention as a further breach. FairSquare’s own filing says Fifa officials must remain politically neutral in dealing with governments, a duty punishable by a ban of up to two years for repeat offenders.

Fifa and the IOC almost never confirm details about open cases. Days before FairSquare’s IOC filing became public, IOC president Kirsty Coventry told reporters her office had not yet received one.

Fifa’s 2017 Purge Still Shadows This Case

Questions about Fifa’s independence did not start with Trump. In May 2017, Fifa’s Council, chaired by Infantino, voted to replace both of the ethics committee’s top officials.

Cornel Borbély, the committee’s chief investigator since 2014, and Hans-Joachim Eckert, who had led its adjudicatory chamber since 2012, learned they were being swapped out only after arriving at a Fifa congress in Bahrain. Two years earlier, the pair had cleared Infantino of corruption allegations. They were still sitting on hundreds of open cases when they were removed.

We worked well on a very high level with a huge volume of cases. There was no need to change the Ethics Committee.

Borbély said that at the time, adding that the only conclusion he could draw was that Fifa’s council had acted for political reasons. Fifa has still not published documents explaining how its disciplinary judges reached their verdict on Balogun.

1. May 2017 – Fifa’s Council, chaired by Infantino, replaces ethics investigator Cornel Borbély and judge Hans-Joachim Eckert.
2. December 2025 – Fifa hands Trump its inaugural Peace Prize at the World Cup draw in Washington.
3. April 2026 – Klaveness tells NRK the prize breached Fifa’s neutrality rules and urges Fifa to scrap it.
4. July 1, 2026 – Balogun is sent off in the 64th minute against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
5. Days later – Trump calls Infantino, the ban is deferred, and Belgium beats the United States 4-1.
6. Mid-July 2026 – FairSquare files its complaint against Infantino with the IOC.
7. July 23, 2026 – Klaveness tells the Times that Norway will weigh its own Fifa complaint.
8. August 6, 2026 – Norway’s board is due to decide whether to file.

Norway’s Own World Cup Scars

Klaveness is not filing this complaint from a neutral distance. She played for Norway at a Women’s World Cup, sits on Uefa’s executive committee, and trained as a judge before entering football administration.

Norway’s own men’s run at this World Cup ended in extra time against England, in the result that sent the Three Lions to a semifinal date with Argentina. Alfie Haaland said afterward that Norway had been robbed, a complaint that ran into a split refereeing record once the calls were reviewed.

Klaveness is pressing her case regardless. Bending the rules this way, she said Thursday, puts Fifa “on a slippery slope that will put the whole game at risk.” It is, she added, “a worry for the game when you compromise fundamental rules of the game.”

Why Does Fifa’s Ethics Process Rarely Deliver a Verdict?

Fifa and the IOC rarely confirm details about ethics cases while they remain open, and Fifa has not published the reasoning its disciplinary judges used when they cleared Balogun to play. That silence, layered on top of the 2017 removal of the committee’s independent leadership, is a large part of why complaints against sitting officials so rarely produce a public sanction.

The New York Post reported this week that Trump has told associates Infantino would make a good pick for the next United Nations secretary general, a sign of how close the two men remain even as the ethics questions pile up around both of them.

Norway’s board meets August 6. Whether it files will depend on a vote the federation has not yet held.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Fifa Peace Prize Trump Received?

Fifa created the award for its 2026 World Cup cycle and gave the first one to Trump in December, at the World Cup final draw in Washington. Klaveness has called the prize illegitimate and pushed Fifa to scrap it, arguing it was created without proper process.

What Does Article 15 of Fifa’s Code of Ethics Say?

Article 15 requires Fifa officials to remain politically neutral in their dealings with governments. FairSquare’s complaint says a proven breach, especially a repeated one, can carry a ban from football activity of up to two years.

Who Did Balogun Foul Before His Red Card?

Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute of the July 1 match for a foul on Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic. The card was confirmed after video review, before Trump’s intervention days later reopened the case.

Why Does the IOC Have Any Say Over a Fifa Case?

Infantino has been one of the International Olympic Committee’s more than 100 members since 2020. The IOC treats political neutrality as a founding principle of Olympism, giving it grounds to review his conduct even though Balogun’s ban was a Fifa matter.

Who Replaced Fifa’s Ethics Investigators After the 2017 Shakeup?

Fifa’s Council put forward Colombian prosecutor Maria Claudia Rojas as investigator and Vassilios Skouris, a former European Court of Justice president, as judge. Neither has publicly commented on the Balogun case.