{"id":75775,"date":"2026-07-05T17:56:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T22:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/astonished-belgium-vow-to-defend-football-after-fifas-shock-balogun-reversal\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T17:56:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T22:56:34","slug":"astonished-belgium-vow-to-defend-football-after-fifas-shock-balogun-reversal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/astonished-belgium-vow-to-defend-football-after-fifas-shock-balogun-reversal\/","title":{"rendered":"Astonished Belgium vow to \u2018defend football\u2019 after Fifa\u2019s shock Balogun reversal"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Rudi Garcia likens decision to April Fools\u2019 Day joke<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Belgian FA says it will investigate all potential options<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>USMNT reaction to Fifa flip: \u2018Thought it was AI at first\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a Fifa media officer read aloud the statement confirming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/jul\/05\/folarin-balogun-red-card-suspension-lifted-usmnt-belgium-world-cup\">the governing body\u2019s shock reversal<\/a> of US striker Folarin Balogun\u2019s suspension on Sunday, Belgium coach Rudi Garcia and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois put their poker faces to work. Garcia stared straight down the aisle of the press conference room at Seattle Stadium. Courtois\u2019s eyes fluttered about, perhaps masking some rolls as he faced a press pack eager to make sense of an unexpected World Cup twist.<\/p>\n<p>Balogun\u2019s reinstatement came across as a joke to the Belgian boss, though he hardly seemed ready for a laugh.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/jul\/05\/belgium-rudi-garcia-world-cup-usmnt-folarin-balogun\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rudi Garcia likens decision to April Fools\u2019 Day joke Belgian FA says it will investigate all potential options USMNT reaction to Fifa flip: \u2018Thought it was AI at first\u2019 As a Fifa media officer read aloud the statement confirming the governing body\u2019s shock reversal of US striker Folarin Balogun\u2019s suspension on Sunday, Belgium coach Rudi &#8230; <a title=\"Astonished Belgium vow to \u2018defend football\u2019 after Fifa\u2019s shock Balogun reversal\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/astonished-belgium-vow-to-defend-football-after-fifas-shock-balogun-reversal\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Astonished Belgium vow to \u2018defend football\u2019 after Fifa\u2019s shock Balogun reversal\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}