STOCKHOLM, April 27 (Reuters) - FIFA should scrap its peace prize to avoid getting drawn into politics, Norwegian Football Association (NFF) President Lise Klaveness said on Monday, suggesting that the awarding of such prizes be left to the Nobel Institute in Oslo.
Led by Gianni Infantino, world soccer's governing body came under fire for awarding its inaugural peace prize to U.S. President Donald Trump in December at the draw for the 2026 World Cup.
The FIFA peace award was seen by many as a consolation prize for Trump, who has said on numerous occasions that he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and whose country will co-host this year's World Cup with Canada and Mexico.
"We (the NFF) want to see it (the FIFA peace prize) abolished. We don't think it's part of FIFA's mandate to give such a prize, we think we have a Nobel Institute that does that job independently already," Klaveness told an online press briefing.
"We think it's important for football federations, confederations and also FIFA to try to avoid situations where this arm's-length distance to state leaders is challenged, and these prizes will typically be very political if you don't have real good instruments and experience to make them independent, with juries and criteria et cetera.
"That is full-time work, it's so sensitive, I think from a resource angle, from a mandate angle, but most importantly from a governance angle I think it should be avoided also in the future," she said.
The 45-year-old lawyer said the NFF board would be writing a letter saying it supported calls for an investigation into the awarding of the prize by non-profit organisation FairSquare, which has alleged that Infantino and FIFA may have breachedtheir own ethical guidelines regarding political impartiality in awarding the prize.
"There should be checks and balances on these issues and this complaint from FairSquare should be treated with a transparent timeline, and that the reasoning and the conclusion should be transparent," Klaveness said.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)
