Trump's FIFA peace prize breached neutrality, claims rights group

Human rights group FairSquare has filed a complaint to FIFA's ethics committee claiming the world football body's president Gianni Infantino breached his duty of neutrality by supporting US President Donald Trump.

Infantino awarded Trump FIFA's inaugural peace prize during the December 6 draw for the 2026 World Cup to be played in the United States, Canada and Mexico in June and July. 

FairSquare also called FIFA's governance structure "absurd", and claimed the organisation's behaviour was against the common interests of the global football community, in a complaint filed on Monday.

"This complaint is about a lot more than Infantino's support for President Donald Trump's political agenda," FairSquare's programme director Nicholas McGeehan said. 

"More broadly this is about how FIFA's absurd governance structure has allowed Gianni Infantino to openly flout the organisation's rules and act in ways that are both dangerous and directly contrary to the interests of the world's most popular sport."

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FairSquare's complaint said awarding the peace prize to a "sitting political figure is in and of itself a clear breach" of article 15 of FIFA's own code of ethics. 

They also requested the ethics committee investigate Infantino's part in the "processes that led to the creation of the FIFA Peace Prize", and the decision to award it to Trump. 

Furthermore, the NGO highlighted Infantino's plea in October for Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and said the Swiss made statements on three other occasions favourable to Trump's political agenda.

Contacted by AFP, FIFA confirmed they had received the complaint but made no further comment.

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