The controversial decision to award Donald Trump the Peace Prize at 2026 World Cup draw last week leads NGO Fairsquare to call for an official investigation into FIFA President Gianni Infantino
Football supremo Gianni Infantino must face a formal investigation into FIFA’s controversial decision to award Donald Trump a peace prize, it was claimed today.
A UK-based human rights organisation has issued an official complaint against Infantino. The NGO demanded that he should be questioned on his repeated public calls of support for the US President. They said if it was proved that he didn’t go through the proper procedures it was an “abuse of power”. And they said it was a “clear breach of … neutrality.” Infantino faced ridicule on Friday when Trump was given his special award at the chaotic World Cup draw.
Now Fairsquare has written to FIFA’s ethics committee calling for an inquiry. Several senior FIFA sources told the Mirror they were not consulted about the new award.
The NGO (non governmental organisation) argued that, under FIFA’s strict rules, Infantino should have consulted the FIFA Council – the organisation’s executive committee – over the establishment of the prize. The Mirror has seen the official complaint which states that if Infantino acted unilaterally, it would be “an egregious abuse of power”.
At Friday’s live draw in front of one billion people across the world, Infantino told Trump: “You can always count on my support.” He responded by calling the award “truly one of the great honours of my life”.
Fairsquare said: “The complaint primarily relates to four public statements made by Mr Infantino, but we would also request that the Ethics Committee investigate the circumstances surrounding the initial decision to introduce a FIFA Peace Prize and the subsequent awarding of the prize, and the conformity of these processes with FIFA’s procedural rules.
“The FCE addresses ‘conduct, other than those specifically provided by other regulations and connected to the field of play that damages the integrity and reputation of football and in particular to illegal, immoral and unethical behaviour’ and it applies to ‘all officials and players’.
It added: “We would request that the Ethics Committee investigate not only Mr Infantino’s public statements in support of President Trump, but also Mr Infantino’s role in the internal FIFA processes that led to the creation of the FIFA Peace Prize, and the decision to award the prize to President Trump on December 5 2025.
“The award of a prize of this nature to a sitting political leader is in and of itself a clear breach of FIFA’s duty of neutrality.”
The draw in Washington DC – which was hosted by former manchester-united-fc>Manchester United skipper Rio Ferdinand – saw England discover their opponents for next summer’s tournament. They will face Croatia in Dallas before meeting Ghana in Boston and finally Panama in New York.
Scotland play Haiti, Morocco and Brazil in their group. The tournament takes place next June and July. A total of 104 matches will be played in the US, Mexico and Canada.
Tens of thousand of supporters are expected to cross the Atlantic to support both Thomas Tuchel’s England and Steve Clarke’s Scotland sides. FIFA has been approached for comment.
