FIFA Puts the FIFA Peace Prize Under Review After Zurich Meeting

The FIFA Peace Prize, the controversial award FIFA president Gianni Infantino presented to Donald Trump last December, is headed for a formal review. World soccer's governing body announced after a council meeting in Zurich on Thursday that its Football Social Responsibility Committee will examine how the prize came to exist and whether it should continue. The findings will be presented at the next council meeting in December, according to a short FIFA news release issued after the session ended. Trump is the award's only recipient so far, after FIFA said last year that the FIFA Peace Prize would be presented annually.

Infantino unveiled the FIFA Peace Prize last November at a public summit in Miami, according to the Palm Beach Post. The prize was designed to honor individuals who, in FIFA's words, had taken exceptional action for peace and united people across the world. Weeks earlier, Trump had been passed over for that year's Nobel Peace Prize in October, an award he had campaigned openly to win. The FIFA announcement arrived quickly on the heels of that decision.

The Nobel snub added an awkward subplot. The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize went to Venezuelan pro-democracy activist María Corina Machado, who then donated the honor to Trump, according to the Palm Beach Post. Trump arrived at the FIFA ceremony in Washington, D.C., a month later, where Infantino handed him a large trophy and a medal. Infantino cited Trump's work on the Gaza ceasefire and other conflict resolution efforts as the basis for the choice. The ceremony drew mockery from commentators, with several describing it as a consolation award for the Nobel miss.

How the award sparked a backlash

Criticism began with the process. Multiple reports said Infantino created the prize without first informing the FIFA Council, blindsiding senior executives. An international human rights group filed a complaint with FIFA's ethics committee, saying the award breached political neutrality, and the Norwegian Football Federation raised the matter with the same body. Fifty members of the European Parliament then called for a formal FIFA investigation.

That pressure surfaced at Thursday's council meeting in Zurich. FIFA vice president Debbie Hewitt, who also chairs the English Football Association, said the Football Social Responsibility Committee will study the FIFA Peace Prize from the start: how it came about, whether it should have been created, who made the decision to award it to Trump, and whether it should be scrapped or reformed.

The meeting was already charged. Infantino apologized during the session for a plan to sell private investors a stake in the revenues of future FIFA tournaments, a deal valued at $4.2 billion according to the Associated Press. The plan, which would have given investors a 20 percent share, was dropped in July after objections from confederations, but European football leaders still demanded documents explaining it and some repeated calls for his resignation. Infantino offered no documents on the abandoned investment plan and instead asked for written questions, according to the Associated Press. Hewitt said European officials considered that response inadequate and questioned whether he remains fit to lead the organization. Infantino did not meet with the media at FIFA headquarters afterward.

What happens next for the FIFA Peace Prize

For FIFA, the FIFA Peace Prize raises an unusual question: whether soccer's governing body should be handing out geopolitical honors at all. A prize meant to reward peacemaking instead became a symbol of the organization's political entanglements, according to critics. FIFA gave no public timeline beyond the December council session. USA Today reported on the council vote and the committee referral.

The timing puts Infantino's leadership under unusual scrutiny. Hewitt said the council session was the last before a deadline next month for candidates to challenge him in the coming FIFA presidential election, according to the Associated Press. The prize review and the abandoned investment plan have together produced the deepest crisis of his long tenure at the top of world soccer. Sky Sports covered the meeting fallout and the pressure on Infantino.