FIFA's green light for Folarin Balogun to play for USMNT is the right decision made through the wrong process

The miracle of FIFA is it can do the right thing and the wrong thing simultaneously.

That is impossible for most of us, but the governing body of international soccer showed Sunday how it can be done.

First, they made the just and proper decision to permit U.S. men's national team striker Folarin Balogun to participate Monday night in the Round of 16 World Cup game against and Belgium after he'd been assigned an almost universally disparaged red card in the second half of their victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the same time, it employed an arcane slice of the organization's disciplinary code to restore his eligibility to compete by suspending his suspension — hey, like I said, this all is convoluted — for one calendar year. And this happened after the White House made a telephone call to FIFA president Gianni Infantino asking for a reconsideration of the suspension, according to UK-based outlets TalkSport and GiveMeSport.

On Thursday night, after Balogun had been dismissed in the 64th minute of the Round of 32 game against Bosnia, coach Mauricio Pochettino expressed during his press conference that he'd like to check on the possibility of appealing the suspension. He was informed by reporters they already had, and there was no such process.

Which is preposterous.

And it's how we wound up with a situation like this.

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Major League Soccer has a process for appealing a red-card suspension. Within 24 hours, a team must provide a written presentation regarding why the punishment — either for a straight red card or a second yellow card that prompts a red — represents a "clear and obvious" error. The league has an independent review panel to consider such decisions. Each MLS team is allowed to be incorrect on such appeals only twice in a season, including in the playoffs.

Premier League teams in England get two days to appeal a straight red, for which the penalty can range from a single game to six. A successful appeal can see such a suspension revoked or reduced. However, if the Football Association finds the appeal to be "frivolous", the suspension can be extended.

FIFA's decision not to have such a body in place for situations such as these leads to circumstances such as those surrounding Balogun's return.

The play that saw him sent off against Bosnia, which forced the USMNT to defend a 1-0 lead with 10 players for more than 30 minutes, was deemed not to be red-card worthy by Mark Clattenburg, the former FIFA referee working the Fox Sports telecast, Stu Holden, the former USMNT midfielder who was the network's game analyst and by former USMNT defender Alexi Lalas, a Fox studio analyst who called it "a joke".

Christina Unkel, a former FIFA referee, said she did not believe it met the standard for a red card. Writing for ESPN.com, former Premier League referee Andy Davies wrote that the action of Balogun placing his right boot against defender Tarik Muharemovic's right ankle and achilles was "purely accidental" and appeared the video assistant referee was "not aligned with VAR protocols" by using "slow-motion and still replays" to recommend referee Raphael Claus examine the play on the available sideline screen.

It is hard to find anyone who watched who believed the red card against Balogun to be justified.

However, the process of restoring him to game eligibility came without comment from the organization and without that formal appeals process. Instead, it was revealed FIFA had employed "Article 27" of its code, which states: "The judicial body may decide to fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure." This is rare. It was used in regards to Portugal legend Cristiano Ronaldo so he could play the whole of this World Cup; he was scheduled to see out the last two of a three-game suspension in this tournament, which he received for the use of an elbow in a World Cup qualifier against Ireland.

And it produced some profoundly negative reactions. And overreactions.

The Royal Belgium FA declared its officials were "astonished" by the decision and are "investigating all potential options" to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams.

One imagines if they were in Portugal's group, they may have brought this up then. But they didn't bring this up then.

UK-based soccer writer Alfie Potts Harmer tweeted this decision "makes a mockery of the whole tournament." That's even more an overreaction than the red card shown to Balogun. Because, in the end, a just decision rendered through an arcane process still is just.

Nico Cantor, the excellent soccer voice for CBS Sports, tweeted: "Imagine how Raphael Claus (referee) and Juan Soto (VAR) are feeling right now. FIFA just undermined their credibility."

OK, but is anyone supposed to be sympathetic that two trained game officials made a lousy decision and saw that overturned?

When it's really the process that's the problem, and not the result, the argument should be that FIFA needs a better process. We didn't need video replay to recognize that. We just needed video replay to screw up badly enough in a big enough situation.