Ronaldo gets rare red-card reprieve after White House dinner as FIFA’s role comes under scrutiny

FIFA is being accused of bending its rules as Cristiano Ronaldo has been cleared to play in the World Cup 2026 opener for Portugal despite receiving a red card in a recent match against Ireland. Ronaldo was handed a three-game ban for his actions that were deemed “violent conduct” or “serious foul play,” but two of the three match bans have been deferred for a one-year probation period.

Ronaldo has already served a mandatory one-game ban, missing Portugal’s World Cup qualifying match against Armenia last week. Portugal won 9-1 against Armenia to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

FIFA bends rules to clear Ronaldo for World Cup opener

There were fears that Ronaldo would miss a few matches for Portugal at the World Cup due to the red card, but FIFA’s disciplinary verdict — which deferred the remaining two-game ban to a one-year probation period — has cleared the superstar to be available for all matches at the mega event.

Interestingly, the massive relief for Ronaldo has come after he attended a dinner party at the White House with Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

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FIFA has argued that its disciplinary rules allow a part of a sanction can be probationary, but it is rarely applied. The most common practice in football is for a player to serve a three-game ban in a single go.

Also, in two other cases involving red-card offences by players from Armenia and Burundi earlier this month, FIFA had handed three-game bans, but none of them received any probation on the sanction.

FIFA said on Tuesday that Ronaldo’s remaining two-game ban would be activated if he commits any foul play of a similar nature during the probationary period.

Portugal are scheduled to play two friendly matches in March, along with a couple of warm-up games before the 2026 World Cup. As these are not official matches, Ronaldo cannot serve his bans in these games, but because they are FIFA-regulated, any serious offence could still lead to him missing matches at the World Cup.

Ronaldo was handed a three-game ban for striking the Ireland defender Dara O’Shea with an elbow in a World Cup Qualifying match that Portugal lost 2-0 in Dublin two weeks ago.