FIFA president Gianni Infantino's decision to present the football federation's newest prize, a Peace Prize, to US President Donald Trump at the 2026 World Cup draw on Friday has opened a Pandora's box of backlash.
Recognising Trump's actions towards promoting “peace and unity around the world", Infantino also pointed out that the former should have won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for his Gaza ceasefire efforts.
Trump has long touted himself as a peacemaker, claiming to have played a vital role in ending conflicts involving places like Cambodia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Israel, and Palestine. Instead, it went to Venezuelan politician-activist Maria Corina Machado, who herself dedicated it partly to Trump.
The massive backlash from human rights activists and football pundits against Infantino's sudden move is centred on one point: FIFA's neutrality.
FIFA has punished politics on the pitch
Over the years, football's biggest governing body has cracked down on a number of political overtures made by players and teams.
For example, a penalty of CHF 50,000 was imposed on Qatar's national team in 2017, after its players wore T-shirts displaying their Emir during a World Cup qualifier match in Doha, which had been at odds with some of its GCC neighbours.
Similarly, Swiss players Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka's unique goal celebrations in a 2018 World Cup match against Serbia—a double-headed eagle gesture, which is a symbol of Albanian nationalism—invited the ire of FIFA. They were fined CHF 10,000 each.
Over the years, about ten countries have also been banned from even competing in the World Cup due to "political interference", with Russia being one of the latest to join the list, as per a SportBIBLE report.
Double standards?
However, Infantino's growing closeness with Trump—and the FIFA peace prize given to the US president on Friday—have sparked concerns of double standards, especially as the award was presented just hours after the US Military killed four people in a strike on a Caribbean vessel allegedly used for smuggling drugs.
Disgraced FIFA ex-president Sepp Blatter has been one of the harshest critics of Infantino cosying up to Trump.
"My successor, I don’t know if it is really Trump or Infantino," he told The Telegraph, not mincing his opinion about Infantino's bias.
"I see this as personal connections, especially with Trump ... Now they give the impression that politicians—on one side Saudi Arabia, and on the other side USA—will take over," he added.
"Giving Donald Trump a prize for peace is like giving Luis Suárez a prize for not biting people’s ears off," quipped football journalist Zach Lowy in an X post.
Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations official who has repeatedly called for suspending Israel from world football over the Gaza war, called the award to Trump a “truly shameful development”, as per an Al Jazeera report.
What netizens said
"'inaugural' is doing all the heavy lifting here. They made it just for him. I'll be keeping a close eye on if FIFA does any more Peace Prizes in the future," a Redditor pointed out.
Comment
byu/Duck_Howard from discussion
inAskTheWorld
"What people want to see: the draw. What’s actually happening: a corrupt president being given a fake award by a corrupt organization," another Redditor wrote.