A human rights group has called on the International Olympic Committee to investigate FIFA president Gianni Infantino in the wake of Folarin Balogun’s red card controversy.FairSquare has issued a complaint to the IOC regarding breaches of political neutrality by FIFA after the United States president Donald Trump revealed he has called Infantino to ask him to override Balogun’s ban.USA’s Folarin Balogun was sent off in the Round of 32 clash against BosniaGettyThe USA striker was sent off in the last-32 match with Bosnia and Herzegovina meaning he would be suspended for the last-16 clash with Belgium.However, the ban was overturned in the hours leading up to the match, creating one of the most controversial decisions in World Cup history.According to The Times, the report also references that the decision to suspend Balogun’s ban came from a single member of the 18-person FIFA disciplinary committee – its chairman Mohammad al-Kamali.Infantino, an IOC member, has since claimed that he nor Trump had any influence over the outcome of Balogun’s overturned red card.It is not the first time FairSquare has submitted a complaint to FIFA’s ethics committee in regards to Infantino’s actions, having communicated their concerns over the decision to award Trump with a FIFA peace prize last year.FairSquare’s grievancesTheir latest complaint read: “Gianni Infantino has repeatedly breached the IOC’s rules on political neutrality by offering his political support for the President of the United States, Donald Trump. “The evidence suggests that Mr Infantino has committed five clear breaches of IOC rules on political neutrality through statements or other clear expressions of support for the US President.”The complaint cites a further two ‘serious breaches’ that it believes the IOC should investigate.“The first of these relates to possible acquiescence to political pressure from President Trump to circumvent FIFA’s on-field disciplinary rules during the 2026 men’s World Cup.”The second alleged breach is linked to a FIFA fan site for the 2026 men’s World Cup, ‘which appears to have been part of a data-harvesting campaign run by entities linked to President Trump,’ the FairSquare complaint added.Trump was given the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December with Infantino lavishing praise on himGettyThe allegation of data-harvesting relates to a report in the Washington Examiner which states that people using the Trump administration devised Freedom 250 website, could register to attend FIFA fan zone screenings of World Cup matches.It adds that those who registered ‘unwittingly gave their personal information to a partisan political entity potentially enabling future targeted marketing’.Balogun knew a storm was comingMeanwhile, Balogun who featured in the USA’s eventual 4-1 defeat to Belgium, says he knew the decision to waive his ban would cause huge controversy.The Monaco striker told CBS Mornings: “My initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team, but when I started to reflect I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy, and I could almost see with my team-mates a bit of nerves because it was something that was so unique.“The closer we got to the [Belgium] game I just tried to focus as best I could — but it was difficult, there was a lot of outside noise and that’s difficult to avoid.”However, Balogun says his red card for a challenge on Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic was undeserved. USA’s Folarin Balogun was reprimanded for an accidental challenge on Bosnia’s Tarik MuharemovicGetty“I was in shock, it wasn’t even a tackle,” he added. “I just had to accept the decision and just be there for my team. For sure, when something is not intentional it should never be a red card, it was just an unfortunate situation.‘My teammates are like my brothers, so they gave me a lot of reassurance: it wasn’t something I could change, it was just the situation that was unfortunate – which gave me confidence,’ he said. ‘But it was confusing because the team was practising without me in the team, I’m almost just playing a supporting role to keep morale high… we found out [that his ban was suspended] on the team bus – everybody was screaming and shouting, it was a pretty intense bus ride to the practice field.He continued: “It’s more [about] being able to separate the emotion from the job at hand – we’re all professionals so it’s not something I think was too difficult to be able to separate once we got over the initial announcement that I’d be back in the team. “But you definitely saw it was a difficult game against Belgium and that can overshadow whether we were focused or not. “But from me being inside the camp and inside the setup, I know we had full concentration going into the game.”