The International Federation of Association Football, commonly known as FIFA, announced this week that it is creating its very own “peace prize” and will declare its first recipient next month in Washington, D.C.
Given that FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, is a close ally and friend to President Donald Trump, it’s likely that Trump will be the winner of the inaugural prize, especially since Trump was visibly upset after not winning the Nobel Peace Prize last month.
The new award will be presented on December 5 at the Kennedy Center, the performing arts center that Trump chairs.
The award is meant to honor those who “have helped to unite people all over the world in peace and consequently deserve a special and unique recognition,” the soccer organization said in a statement.
Infantino, who will hand out the prize personally, issued a statement insinuating that politics played a role in its creation.
“In an increasingly unsettled and divided world, it’s fundamental to recognize the outstanding contribution of those who work hard to end conflicts and bring people together in a spirit of peace,” Infantino said.
The FIFA president’s language about ending conflicts echoes Trump’s claims to have ended multiple global conflicts — claims political experts have said are highly misleading or untrue.
Observers have pointed to a litany of actions by Trump that make him undeserving of a peace prize. Trump has, for example, sent National Guard troops to multiple U.S. cities and is threatening to further militarize cities by deploying the Army and other branches of the military. He has enacted a violent crackdown on immigration, using masked federal officers to abduct people, including U.S. citizens and legal residents, and deporting immigrants without due process, often to countries with notable human rights abuses. He bombed Iran earlier this year, and recently announced his intentions to expand the U.S. nuclear program by restarting weapons testing. He has promoted ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza, and has likely engaged in crimes against humanity by ordering strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean.
A “peace prize” from FIFA is questionable in its own right, given that the organization has repeatedly overlooked human rights abuses.
FIFA, for instance, selected Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup, despite that country’s documented history of human rights violations. Human Rights Watch decried that decision, noting this summer that Saudi Arabia’s use of child labor and its dangerous working conditions for foreign workers are deeply troubling.
“FIFA should use its leverage for significantly stronger worker protections to prevent worker deaths in Saudi Arabia and beyond,” read a joint statement from Minky Worden, Human Rights Watch director of global initiatives, and Katherine La Puente, senior coordinator of the organization’s Children’s Rights Division, adding that FIFA should also “call on the Saudi government to ensure that all worker deaths are properly investigated and certified.”
Advocacy group FairSquare blasted FIFA’s decision in a report it issued in the spring, predicting that there will be an inevitable “surge in deaths” during construction projects for the event.
“It will be hard to determine how many will die but it’s indubitably the case that many thousands will, and that’s utterly unacceptable,” the group wrote in its report, adding:
It’s particularly galling when you consider that many of the deaths will be a direct result of the FIFA 2034 World Cup. FIFA’s response to the risks was amateurish, and that’s being kind. It was utterly negligent. They gave Saudi Arabia’s bid the highest score of any they had received with scant regard to any of the very obvious risks.
Meanwhile, FIFA has disregarded its own rules by refusing to sanction Israel for its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has violated numerous FIFA statutes by playing league matches on occupied land, enforcing systemic racial discrimination, destroying soccer facilities, and killing Palestinian players.
“Given FIFA’s history of financial corruption and selective embrace of political appeals, it seems unlikely to take action against Israel, particularly at a time when FIFA officials are desperately seeking corporate sponsors and broadcasting partners for the Club World Cup, to be held in the United States next summer,” wrote Abdullah Al-Arian, an associate professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar, in op-ed published by Truthout last year.
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