The USA may have been knocked out of the World Cup following their round of 16 defeat to Belgium, but the storm over the cancelled red card shown to Folarin Balogun, which came after US President Donald Trump’s phone call to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, shows no sign of dying down.

Fresh fuel has been added to the fire by a report in the Times, which reveals a previously unknown detail about how FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee reached its decision.

According to the report, the decision that sparked widespread was taken unilaterally by the committee’s chairman, Mohammad Al Kamali of the United Arab Emirates, without consulting any of the panel’s other 17 members.

Al Kamali was, in fact, the same official who had initially imposed the one-match suspension on Balogun, before subsequently suspending the punishment for a year, a decision that allowed the USA forward to play in the round of 16 tie against Belgium.

Following the report’s publication, the FIFA official was approached by BBC journalists, but declined to answer their questions, continuing to walk away with his head bowed.