By awarding a Peace Prize to Donald Trump, Fifa’s president trampled over decency. Within a month, it has become a proven farce.
You may have your own definition of what peace entails, but the large-scale bombing of a South American country and the capture of its leader is probably stretching it a touch. 2026 is midterm year and World Cup year and Donald Trump seems intent upon strong-arming his way through both. Bombs away, you might call the plan.
Last week, Trump ordered airstrikes in Nigeria targeting Isis operatives. There were reports of wrong targets being hit, resultant civilian casualties and widespread claims that the action could lead to further polarisation and make the situation worse.
Why does it come under the remit of the back pages and its writers, is a relevant question? What does this have to do with football? Nothing, then everything.
Infantino (right) has even moved a Fifa office into Trump Tower in New York (Photo: Getty)Nothing because military aggression and major tournaments have always been separated entirely by design in a false construct of “Hey, it’s the World Cup and it’s a melting pot and everybody gets on”, even when the links are painfully obvious. Nothing because admitting how the tides of geopolitics were impacting upon sport would destroy its escapism.
And now: everything because of how football’s governing body has blurred the lines and forced the two circles together to create a distasteful Venn diagram.
“You definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize for your action,” said Gianni Infantino to Trump. “For what you have obtained in your way, but you have obtained it in an incredible way.”
Fifa’s disgrace broke its own statutes
The creation of a Peace Prize awarded to a political figure by an apolitical organisation was always a farce for exactly that reason. You can stand for peace, togetherness and unity, because that is entirely normal human behaviour. But by documenting that formally in such a deliberately public way, Fifa invited derision.
Awarding it to Trump only escalated derision because it was so obviously risky to everyone and came so transparently on the back of Infantino moving closer towards Trump politically and geographically. (Fifa has moved an office into Trump Tower in Manhattan.)
If you consider this collusion of Trump and Infantino into one image is a gross exaggeration, think on. The presentation in Washington in December was dystopian in both its delivery and breathtaking chutzpah.
The tendency to mock was tempting, but misses the point: for the Fifa president to tell Trump, at the World Cup draw, that he could always count upon his support and the support of the football community, was a disgrace that broke the organisation’s own statutes.
‘This is not good enough’
A month on, Fifa’s president must now deal with the cloud that will encircle him and his organisation as a result. Without the Peace Prize or Infantino’s cosying, nobody could or would have expected a response or reasonably linked military aggression to their organisation. Now the links are etched on an audaciously brash trophy.
Of course, all this is wasted bluster because criticism simply washes off these people. Trump wasn’t awarded the Fifa Peace Prize because anyone involved cared what anyone else might think. If there’s anyone who thinks military action in Venezuela will provoke an angry annulment of Trump’s prize, I have some magic beans that you might like to buy.
But it still bears repeating; if there is no accountability we must hold people to account ourselves. This is not good enough. The governing body that purports to stay out of politics and merely use its coffers to grow the game should never be in this position. Its president should never have tied himself so publicly to any leader, let alone Trump. And make no mistake: this is merely the start…
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