Fifa is planning to change its rules to prevent a repeat of the Folarin Balogun scandal.

But it faces a fresh row over a proposed amendment to its disciplinary code amid accusations it is designed to absolve the governing body, and president Gianni Infantino, of any wrongdoing.

The rule change, which would stop Fifa being able to suspend an automatic one-match ban for players shown a straight red card, has also been sprung on members of its ruling council before what threatens to be a fiery meeting of the 37-strong body in Zurich on Thursday.

Fifa wrote to councillors on Tuesday seeking their approval for an amendment that was not included on the agenda for this week’s meeting, which was published a fortnight ago.

The change has been proposed three months after Balogun, the United States striker, escaped an immediate one-match ban for being sent off during this summer’s World Cup.

Infantino had been expected to face renewed calls to release all documents and files related to a scandal that erupted when Donald Trump claimed credit for Balogun’s reprieve.

The US president did so after revealing he had called Infantino and asked the Swiss to intervene.

Infantino subsequently denied having any influence over a decision taken by the chairman of Fifa’s disciplinary committee using a little-known rule allowing the “suspension of implementation of disciplinary measures”.

This disregarded another rule that states a straight red card “automatically” incurs a one-match ban, something that was reinforced in a circular sent in May to all 48 countries that qualified for the World Cup.

Balogun’s unprecedented reprieve provoked a major backlash, with Uefa saying it “crossed a red line”, adding: “We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”

The scandal was compounded when it emerged Infantino had been plotting a £15bn World Cup sell-off involving those with links to Trump, triggering the worst crisis of the Fifa president’s decade-long reign and leaving him fighting to stay in power.

The proposed rule change being recommended for approval on Thursday would mean “automatic one-match suspensions” are specifically excluded from disciplinary measures eligible to be suspended.

It would not prevent Fifa suspending lengthier bans, something it did in November after Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for elbowing Dara O’Shea in Portugal’s World Cup qualifying defeat to Republic of Ireland.

Ronaldo served just a one-match suspension and did not miss any of his country’s games at the finals despite the governing body’s disciplinary code stating elsewhere that violent conduct red cards incur a ban of “at least three matches”.

The proposed rule change comes a week after it emerged the Democratic Republic of Congo were allowed to play at the World Cup – where they almost knocked out England – despite a secret ruling that they had fielded an ineligible goalkeeper for more than four years.

In a case with echoes of the Balogun scandal, DR Congo escaped serious action after it was found they had failed to register the French-born Lionel Mpasi to represent them.

Véron Mosengo-Omba, the head of Congolese football, is a supporter and close friend of Infantino’s, having gone to university with the Fifa president in Switzerland.

Norway’s football federation also filed formal complaints last wee against Infantino over the Balogun scandal, his subsequent World Cup sell-off plot and the Fifa Peace Prize bestowed on Trump.

Separate filings were lodged against Infantino with the governing body’s ethics committee and its governance, audit and compliance committee.

Infantino is expected to face a grilling over all this and more on Thursday, not least this week’s accusation that he failed to declare properly a £1.3m “second salary”.

That is after US Internal Revenue Service filings showed a subsidiary in charge of running the most recent World Cup paid him $1.76m (£1.3m), which was omitted from Fifa’s annual report. In 2024, Infantino was stated by Fifa as earning 4.27m Swiss francs (£3.88m).

Debbie Hewitt, the FA chairwoman and a Fifa vice-president, is expected to speak up after she wrote to Infantino to demand he release all documents and files relating to both his abandoned World Cup sell-off plan and the decision to suspend Balogun’s ban Balogun.

An outcome is still awaited in the lawsuit filed by Uefa in the US seeking orders forcing Infantino to disclose all material related to the plot to sell stakes in football’s flagship tournament. European football’s governing body went to court amid plans to bring a complaint for “criminal mismanagement” against the Fifa president in Switzerland.

Infantino has denied any wrongdoing in all the controversies engulfing him.

Fifa has been approached for comment.