Soccer officials and players are questioning FIFA’s decision to award US President Donald Trump the inaugural Peace Prize.
Published April 28, 2026
With six weeks until the World Cup, FIFA is facing criticism for politicizing football and undermining the sport’s credibility as a force for good.
Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) president Lise Klavenes has called on FIFA to abolish the Peace Prize to avoid getting dragged into politics, and suggested handing over such awards to the Nobel Institute in Oslo.
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The sport’s world governing body, led by Gianni Infantino, came under fire for awarding the inaugural Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump during the World Cup draw in December.
The FIFA Peace Prize was seen by many as a consolation prize for Trump, who has repeatedly said he should win the Nobel Peace Prize and that his country is co-hosting this year’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico.
“We (NFF) want to abolish the (FIFA Peace Prize). We do not believe that it is part of FIFA’s mission to award such an award. We believe that there is already a Nobel Institute that does that work independently,” Klavenes said in an online press conference.
“We think it’s important for football federations, confederations and FIFA to try to avoid situations where they’re challenged at arm’s length with state leaders. And unless we have really good tools and experience to have that independence with juries and standards and so on, these awards are usually going to be very political.”
“This is a full-time job and a very sensitive job. I think about it from a resource perspective, from a mission perspective, but most importantly from a governance perspective, and I think it should be avoided in the future,” she said.
The 45-year-old’s lawyer said the NFF board plans to write a letter supporting a request for an investigation into the awarding by the nonprofit Fair Square, which claims Infantino and FIFA may have violated its own ethical guidelines on political impartiality in awarding awards.
“There need to be checks and balances on these issues and this complaint from Fair Square should be dealt with on a transparent schedule and its reasons and conclusions should be transparent,” Craveness said.
FIFA did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
“A mockery of the Charter of Human Rights”
Meanwhile, Australian footballer Jackson Irvine said FIFA was undermining soccer’s credibility as a force for good, accusing the organization of making a mockery of its own human rights policies.
Irvine also criticized FIFA’s decision to award the Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump.
The United States launched a military attack on Venezuela a month after the draw, and on February 28 launched joint airstrikes on Israel and Iran.
“As an organization, I have to say that decisions like the one we make to award this peace prize make a mockery of what we are doing with the Charter of Human Rights and what we are trying to do with the Charter of Human Rights and how we are trying to use football as a global force for positive positive change in the world,” Irvine told Reuters.
“Such decisions feel like they cut us off from the perceived market of what football is now, especially at the top level, and from the grassroots of what the game really is and means in our local communities and the world.”
FIFA published its first human rights policy in 2017. The human rights framework for the 2026 World Cup includes provisions for host cities to promote inclusion, protect freedom of expression and prohibit discrimination during the tournament, which runs from June 11 to July 19.
But rights groups pointed to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown and deportations and said FIFA needed to do more to push the United States to address the risks of human rights abuses against players, fans and workers.
