By endorsing a statement in which Uefa accused Fifa of crossing “a red line” in making the “incomprehensible and unjustifiable” decision to lift the USA striker Folarin Balogun’s suspension for the last-16 tie with Belgium on Monday, Ceferin has effectively put European football on a war footing with the world governing body, a dramatic move that could have major implications for the future of the sport.
Much like Trump, and indeed Gianni Infantino, Ceferin is a hands‑on president and avid consumer of football media, so he will have known exactly what his organisation was doing. The latter pair have been at loggerheads since Infantino proposed the creation of an expanded Club World Cup in 2018, which finally came to pass in the US last year, with much of the current tension between Fifa and Uefa based on the former’s desire t