The referee who handed Folarin Balogun his red card — costing Team USA their top scorer for both the Round of 16 and potentially beyond — was previously accused of match-fixing in Brazil. Specifically for issuing irregular red cards.
That detail is going to haunt American soccer fans for a while.
What the accusations actually said
Rafael Claus, a FIFA-certified Brazilian referee, faced formal allegations in February 2023 while officiating in Brazil's top division. The accusation wasn't vague — it named irregular red cards as the mechanism. He was called to testify alongside his VAR team, and the Brazilian Football Confederation investigated thoroughly.
Their conclusion: no evidence of bribery or match-fixing. Claus was cleared.
That's the official record. Whether it satisfies anyone watching the US exit unfold in real time is a different matter entirely.
Balogun had been the sharpest attacking weapon in the American squad — his absence doesn't just weaken the lineup, it removes the one player opponents had to specifically plan around. Whoever the US face next will have one fewer headache to deal with. That changes how you'd look at any odds involving this American side going deep in the tournament.
Cleared, but the timing is brutal
The frustrating reality for US fans is that "cleared of wrongdoing" and "got the call right" are not the same sentence. Claus was exonerated institutionally. That says nothing about whether Wednesday night's red card was correct — and given the stakes, that question isn't going away.
American soccer doesn't get many moments like this tournament run. Losing Balogun to a red card that's already being picked apart frame by frame, issued by a referee who had to defend his red card decisions before a federation inquiry, is the kind of thing that lodges itself in the sport's collective memory.
Claus was cleared. Balogun is still suspended. Those two facts can both be true at once.
