FIFA Weighs Scrapping Peace Prize After Awarding It to Trump

Six months after the FIFA Peace Prize was awarded to US President Donald Trump, the award faces the risk of being scrapped — a move that would make Trump its first and only recipient. The news comes as FIFA President Gianni Infantino faces mounting criticism, including over plans to sell stakes in FIFA's top competitions.

According to British media reports, at the FIFA Council meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday, several member countries called for the award to be discontinued, while others proposed that it no longer be given to politicians. Under that pressure, FIFA's 22-member Football Social Responsibility Committee has been tasked with assessing the legitimacy of the award and is expected to issue a recommendation before the next Council meeting in Doha, Qatar, on 16 December.

What is the FIFA Peace Prize?

On 5 November, world football's governing body announced a new annual award called the "FIFA Peace Prize – Football Connects the World," intended to "honour individuals who have taken extraordinary and exceptional action for peace." A month later, Trump became its first recipient.

The US leader had been seen as a strong candidate for the inaugural prize after failing to win the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, despite an energetic campaign backed by numerous world leaders. Trump thanked FIFA and called it "one of the greatest honours of my life."

Trump and Infantino are close allies. At the award ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the FIFA president said: "This is your award. This is your peace award." Infantino has repeatedly stressed football's role as a connector of the world, but the prize is seen as a departure from the federation's traditional sporting focus.

Critics pointed out that the award was handed out less than 24 hours after the Trump administration carried out a deadly airstrike in the Caribbean. Two months later, the US and Israel launched a war against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran and striking nuclear and military sites across the country. The US–Israeli war with Iran dragged on for months, and this week Trump declared he would not attack Iran again before the US midterm elections on 3 November.

Why FIFA might scrap the award

FIFA Vice-President Debbie Hewitt, who is also chair of the English Football Association, told a Council press conference that the committee "will look at, first of all, how the peace prize came about, whether it should have come about, whether it should have been awarded in the way it was, who made that decision, and whether or not it should be discontinued or reformed."

Responding to Al Jazeera, FIFA cited Infantino's remarks: "For the FIFA Peace Prize, a decision has been made to task the Football Social Responsibility Committee with analysing it and making a proposal, and a decision will be made at the next FIFA Council meeting."

Objections to the award

The prize has drawn opposition from several quarters. In October, the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) filed parallel submissions to FIFA committees on three recent issues, including the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize. The NFF said the aim was "to raise these matters formally with the appropriate bodies, so that they are examined, relevant evidence is gathered and responsibility is established for the conclusions reached."

NFF President Lise Klaveness said in April that FIFA should scrap the peace prize to avoid being drawn into politics: "We would like to see it abolished. We don't believe that awarding a prize like that is part of FIFA's mandate. We think there is a Nobel Institute that does that independently." Earlier, human rights group FairSquare filed a complaint with the FIFA Ethics Committee, accusing Infantino of breaching his duty of neutrality by backing Trump.

Criticism from players and human rights groups

Australia midfielder Jackson Irvine said FIFA had undermined football's credibility as a force for good and accused the governing body of turning its human rights policy into a laughing stock. "As an organisation, you have to say that decisions like awarding this peace prize make people laugh at what they're trying to do with the human rights charter," Irvine told Reuters.

Craig Mokhiber, a former UN official who has campaigned to suspend Israel from world football, called awarding the prize to Trump "a truly shameful development." Mokhiber told Al Jazeera: "Not content with two years of FIFA complicity in genocide in Palestine, Infantino and his inner circle have now invented a new 'peace prize' to curry favour with Donald Trump." He said the award was also meant to "obscure" Trump's shameful record of backing Israel, deadly airstrikes in the Caribbean and "grave human rights violations" inside the US.

Growing pressure on Infantino

The review of the FIFA Peace Prize follows a wave of opposition Infantino has faced. The FIFA president has come under criticism since late July, when he announced a desire to open top competitions such as the World Cup to private investors. The plan was ultimately shelved amid widespread opposition led by UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF.

Infantino has led FIFA since 2016 and is running for a new term in March, despite calls for him to resign over a $4.2 billion plan to sell 20 percent of the commercial rights of the World Cup.