Football bromance: Infantino praising Trump for his global peace work and awarding him the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize at the Kennedy Center, in Washington DC on Dec 5, 2025. — AFP
NOT long after President Donald Trump missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize that he openly campaigned for, his friend Gianni Infantino got to work.
Infantino, president of FIFA, football’s global governing body, who had publicly lobbied for Trump to receive the peace prize, simply had his organisation establish its own. The announcement of the “FIFA Peace Prize – Football Unites the World” was so hastily arranged that it surprised several of the body’s most senior officials, including board members and vice presidents, according to four football executives briefed on the events.
On Friday, FIFA announced the award winner along with the draw for the competing groups in the 2026 men’s World Cup. While the results of the draw was unpredictable, there was little doubt about who would receive the peace prize.
Why FIFA established a peace prize owes less to sports and more to Infantino’s efforts to ingratiate himself with Trump.
Special relationship
Infantino has lauded Trump at almost every opportunity, attending events that have little to do with football, handing over major FIFA trophies to Trump and presiding over FIFA’s rental of office space in Trump Tower in New York two years after the organisation opened a gleaming North American hub in Miami.
The Trump Tower office is empty much of the time, according to three of the executives and a fourth official, all of whom are familiar with how FIFA uses the space. They, like others cited in this article, requested anonymity to discuss private FIFA matters. FIFA did not answer questions beyond saying that the organisation paid “market rent” for the Trump Tower office space.
Friday’s event was held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, a public-private space whose leadership Trump has stacked with loyalists. Democrats have accused the Kennedy Center of giving FIFA a sweetheart deal to use the venue, a claim that the centre has denied.
FIFA and Infantino have said that close relationships with the US government and with Trump are vital to ensuring a successful World Cup. The tournament will be played mostly in the United States, with games also in Canada and Mexico, requiring elaborate coordination.
Trump has welcomed Infantino into his orbit, recently calling him “my boy” and embracing the planning for the World Cup. Trump established a government task force run by Andrew Giuliani, son of his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to ensure the tournament goes smoothly.
As the Trump administration makes it more difficult for foreign travellers to obtain visas, a goal of the task force is to ensure visitors for the World Cup can enter quickly, officials have said. One initiative would prioritise visa appointments for World Cup ticket holders. (The past two World Cup hosts, Qatar and Russia, granted visa-free travel to ticket holders.)
Trump has also seized on the World Cup as a tool to wield influence, using the economic benefits that come with hosting a game as a political cudgel against Democratic politicians. He has threatened to pull World Cup matches from Boston, for example, after clashing with its mayor.
Quid pro quo?
The relationship between the president and Infantino dates to Trump’s first term, when FIFA selected the United States to co-host the 2026 World Cup. A regular in the Oval Office, Infantino has also travelled thousands of miles to attend events with Trump. After touring the Persian Gulf with Trump in May, Infantino arrived hours late to FIFA’s annual meeting in Paraguay, prompting European football leaders to walk out.
Praise and privileges are offered in both directions. Trump invited Infantino to Egypt in October to mark the Gaza Strip ceasefire deal. He was the only sports official there.
“The president of FIFA – Gianni Infantino,” Trump exclaimed at a Miami business summit last month, adding, “Wow, Gianni, my boy. I didn’t know he was going to be here.”
Despite FIFA statutes mandating officials’ political neutrality, Infantino, who has described Trump as a “really close friend,” has offered backing for Trump’s agenda. “We should all support what he’s doing because I think it’s looking pretty good,” Infantino said at the gathering in Miami.
Miguel Maduro, a former head of governance at FIFA, said that while the organisation valued good relationships with national leaders, Infantino went too far in lauding the president’s record.
“That is clearly, in my view, a violation of the duty of political neutrality imposed by FIFA’s code of ethics,” Maduro said. FIFA did not give a response to his criticism.
Infantino’s trips to the White House often end with his leaving a gift. During an August visit, he showed off a replica of the men’s World Cup trophy. Trump praised the “beautiful piece of gold,” then asked to keep it.
At that meeting, Trump announced that the World Cup draw would be held at the Kennedy Center. To prepare, FIFA occupied the centre for three weeks, prompting the cancellation of much of its lucrative holiday season schedule.
Huge games
In the sports world, the World Cup stands alone in scale. The complexity of the 2026 edition – 104 matches, the most in the tournament’s 95-year history, staged across three countries – has required years-long planning.
The World Cup task force, run out of the Department of Homeland Security, has more than a dozen staffers working with federal, state and local officials to coordinate efforts, a Trump administration official said. Every agency involved has had to submit a report about efforts to enhance security in the 11 US host cities.
Trump has threatened to upend those plans with warnings about pulling games from cities he deems unsafe.
Infantino was drawn into the debate at the White House last month when Trump was asked about the election of Katie Wilson, a self-described socialist, as mayor of Seattle.
The president said that if he saw “the sign of any trouble,” he would push to take away the city’s World Cup hosting duties.
“We’ll say, ‘Gianni, can I say we will move?’” Trump said. He added, “I don’t think you’re going to have this problem.”
Standing next to him, Infantino responded, “Safety and security is the No 1 priority for a successful World Cup.”
As for any peace accolades, Infantino may have been upstaged. On Wednesday, Trump awarded himself with a peace recognition by renaming the US Institute of Peace to “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace”. — ©2025 The New York Times Company
