Soccer official calls for 'abolishment' of FIFA Peace Prize months after Donald Trump awarded honor
· Yahoo Sports
In December 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump became the first-ever recipient of FIFA’s controversial Peace Prize. But if the president of Norway’s football federation has her way, he will also be the award’s final ever winner.
Awarded by FIFA President Gianni Infantino with a medal and a large trophy on stage during the draw for the 2026 World Cup, which is set to be held across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the newly created honor had only been announced a month prior. Coincidentally, this came shortly after Trump was unsuccessful in being named the year’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient - something he had publicly pushed for beforehand.
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Instead, the Norwegian Nobel Institute awarded the coveted 2025 prize to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado. The institute praised her “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
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In response to the institute’s decision, a statement made by a White House spokesperson claimed, “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” as per Fortune.
However, Trump eventually got his hands on the Peace Prize medal when Machado opted to gift it to the President in January in what she called a “Personal Symbol of Gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan People,” via Reuters, after the U.S. captured now-former leader Nicolas Maduro earlier that month.
Now in possession of both the FIFA and Nobel Peace Prize medals, Norwegian FA president Lise Klaveness believes the global soccer governing body’s award should be “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,” she said on Thursday, courtesy of The Athletic.
“We think it’s important for football federations, confederations and FIFA to try and avoid situations where this arm’s length distance to state leaders are challenged. These prizes will typically be very political if you don’t have really good instruments and experience to make this independent.
“To have a jury and criteria is full-time work. It’s so sensitive. From a resource angle and from a mandate angle but, most importantly, from a governance angle, I think it should be avoided also in the future.”
FIFA’s ties with Trump, however, couldn’t be much closer - at least such is the case with the President and Infantino.
In an Instagram post following the event in December, Infantino, who has regularly visited the White House during Trump’s second tenure while he also attended Trump’s inaugural ‘Board of Peace’ meeting in February, wrote, “I was honoured and delighted to present the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize – Football Unites the World award to United States President Donald J. Trump for his unwavering commitment to advancing peace and unity throughout the world through his notable leadership and action.
“Football stands for peace, unity and togetherness, and we recognise @potus’s exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world.
Infantino attended Trump's first Board of Peace meeting in February -Credit:SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images“I thank you President Trump for all that you do and you can always count on my support, and on the support of the entire football community, to help make peace and prosperity all over the world.”
According to The Athletic, FIFA’s Peace Prize was announced without having received approval from the FIFA Council.