(Note: For those unfortunate few who hate soccer, you can just skip to the next post—and you are missing one of the world's greatest sporting events.)
Like more than 30 million other Americans, last night I watched the U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT) defeat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 at the FIFA World Cup.™ The big talking point after the game was whether the "straight" (i.e., immediate) red card given to the American striker, Folarin Balogun, was correct. As a long-time fan of the U.S. men's team (and the women's team, see, e.g., my post here), it may not be a surprise that I disagree with the call. And I acknowledge that I lack formal training in the rules of the World Cup. But as a lawyer and former trial court judge, I do have training and experience in applying rules to specific fact patterns. That background leads to me question the decision last night. Because it is interesting to think about how legal rules apply in this situation, I thought a short blog might be appropriate and timely.
To briefly recap the situation, last night at about 63 minutes into the match, the USMNT was leading the Bosnian team 1-0. Then American striker Balogun and Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic came together as they competed to claim a ball high in the air. You watch video of the incident here. As Balogun came down, the studs on his boot (e.g., his right cleat) landed on the ankle of Muharemovic. The referee on the field called nothing. But after the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) looked at incident in slow-motion, he called the referee to review the images. After slow motion review of the video, the referee changed his earlier call and gave Balogun a red card for "serious foul play." This red card means Balogun was ejected from the game—and he will now miss the USMNT's next game against Belgium on Monday.
As a lawyer considering the red card, four concerns come quickly to mind:
The "Time Framing" Problem
In law, a common issue is deciding the appropriate time frame to assess a disputed action. In criminal law, for example, a defendant's actions may look culpable if one focuses on a narrow point in time. But stepping back and viewing the situation more broadly places the conduct in a different light. A simple illustration is that a defendant shooting a person might look like murder, if analyzed exclusively by focusing at the time the shot was fired. But rewinding time and learning that a few seconds earlier the person killed had made serious and plausible deadly threat to the defendant, the defendant's action might be reasonable self-defense. Selecting the right time frame is critical.
Applied to Balogun's situation, the time framing issue is whether to assess the correctness of the red card at the time he landed on the defender's ankle—or earlier. Almost by definition, the assessment must involve a broader time frame then when Balogun landed. To offer simple hypothetical example, suppose Balogun had jumped straight up in the air to try and win the ball and the defendant had deliberately placed his ankle under Balogun to draw a red card. Focusing just on the landing would provide a misleading impression.
In Balogun's situation, the issue of whether he engaged in serious foul play would seem to turn on the time at which he launched his jump. Thereafter, of course, his ability to change his trajectory would be very limited. And yet, according to the American televised broadcast, the VAR officials and referee appeared to focus on the time at which he landed.
The time framing problem becomes even more substantial when we consider what happened after Balogun's launch and during his jump. As shown in the image below, the defender arm is extended into Balogun, clearly changing the trajectory of his jump.
Of course, if Balogun was knocked off balance by the Bosnian player, that would seem to place the incident in a different light.
