FIFA Should Have Used Sortition to Decide Balogun's Red Card
Sortition is the random selection of decision makers
Folarin Balogun, an American from England of Nigerian descent, got a red card and wasn’t going to be allowed to play for the USA tonight against Belgium, but then FIFA changed their mind. This has caused controversy!
It is my opinion that no American should receive a misconduct card of any colour.
That said, perhaps I can imagine myself being not an American. Then maybe if FIFA wanted to rescind a red card, they should randomly select from among all member countries to create a deliberative body. Like creating a global jury. During an international tournament such as the World Cup, they could have multiple juries pre-formed and ready to deal with controversies. This would be a use of sortition.
Sortition is the random selection of decision makers. Terrill Bouricius has a series of articles that thoroughly explore the idea. This one is relevant:
If FIFA used sortition for its governance, not only could it handle questions during the World Cup, but it could also overcome its long history of corruption. You may be an American like me, so I forgive you for any unfamiliarity with the history of FIFA’s corruption. Maybe you’ve started to recognize Infantino, given how many times the camera focuses on him. He’s the president of FIFA.
Before Infantino, we had Sepp Blatter, who was impeached.
I was thinking about trying to list all the scandals, but honestly, I can’t really cite many facts and I’m not really interested in doing the research. I’m also sick of looking at images of presidents of any kind…of clubs, of countries, of school boards….on TVs, or coins, or mountainsides. What’s so special about these guys?
Anyway, in my soccer communties across my whole long life, it’s just been accepted that FIFA is corrupt. No one ever takes FIFA’s side. Maybe we are persecuting and mocking them unfairly. Welp, let a sortition body decide, too.
Now, is there a way to use sortition to replace VAR?
What's VAR?