England’s preparation suffered another setback when FIFA handed their star defender Jarell Quansah a controversial two-match suspension. Given that FIFA has not yet publicly explained why Jarell Quansah received a ban that was harsher than expected, people doubted whether they had explained this to Thomas Tuchel.

“Hi, we asked FIFA for an explanation as to why they decided to give Jarell Quansah two games instead of one game,” Mike Keegan from The Daily Mail asked Tuchel at the pre-game press conference on July 11th. “They refused to give us an explanation. I wonder if you’ve had an explanation and whether you thought it may have something to do with your comments about the standard of refereeing after the Mexico game.”

To everyone’s surprise, even the head coach of the England national team is yet to get an explanation. “I don’t think so, but we also have no explanation,” Tuchel said.

During the round of 16 match between Mexico and England on July 5th, Quansah received a straight red card in the 54th minute. After the VAR check, a high challenge on left-back Jesús Gallardo was confirmed, his sending off the field. While England bagged a victory of 3-2, believing they were done with that game, it was still not over.

On July 9th, a review by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee imposed a ban of 2 games on the defender, notifying the Football Association. This caused a lot of commotion because England received this news just 2 days before their clash against Norway. Major British media outlets, including the Daily Mail, formally requested a breakdown of the ruling from FIFA’s media department, but there have been no comments from their side.

Tuchel, already frustrated when England played against them, publicly criticized the standard of tournament refereeing. There was speculation that maybe his comments about the referees resulted in a harsher ban. FIFA completely deviated from standard World Cup protocol and even denied England an appeal. A notice without any proper explanation was handed over to them. The normal precedent only points to a one-match suspension. Unless a player strikes an opponent, spits, or engages in violent conduct.

This situation has drawn heavy criticism for FIFA due to its inconsistent handling of Folarin Balogun’s case. The referee sent Balogun off with a red card after he committed a “serious foul play” tackle against Bosnia.

Yet, they lifted his 12-month ban and even allowed him to play in the USA’s match against Belgium. FIFA letting an American player play and imposing 2 game ban on an English player for the same tackle created an incredibly unfair playing field. But on the bright side, Declan Rice and Marc Guéhi are both cleared for the match, which will kick off at 5:00 PM ET at the Miami stadium.