FIFA is considering scrapping its newly established peace prize less than a year after awarding it to US President Donald Trump, following complaints over the decision and calls from member associations to abolish the award.
The governing body of world football has tasked its 22-member Football Social Responsibility Committee with reviewing the merits of the "FIFA Peace Prize – Football Unites the World". The committee is expected to present its recommendations before the next FIFA Council meeting in Doha, Qatar, on December 16, 2026, says Al Jazeera.
If FIFA discontinues the award, Trump will remain its first and only recipient.
How the award was established
FIFA announced the annual prize on November 5, 2025, saying it would recognise individuals who had taken "exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace".
FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented the inaugural award to Trump at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2025, six months before the 2026 World Cup.
"This is your prize. This is your peace prize," Infantino told Trump during the presentation.
Trump described the award as "one of the great honours of my life".
The decision subsequently drew criticism from football officials, players and human rights campaigners, prompting calls for FIFA to reconsider the award and examine how the decision was made.
Why FIFA is reviewing the prize
The review follows demands from several FIFA member nations at a council meeting in Zurich to scrap the award or stop presenting it to politicians.
FIFA Vice President and English Football Association President Debbie Hewitt said the committee would examine the award's origins, the decision to establish it and the process behind its presentation to Trump.
The committee "will consider, first of all, how the peace prize came about, whether it should have come about, whether it should have been awarded in the way that it was, who made that decision and whether or not it should be taken out or whether it should be reformed," Hewitt said.
Infantino confirmed that the committee would assess the award and make a proposal for consideration by the FIFA Council.
"For the FIFA Peace Prize, it was decided that the Football Social Responsibility Committee will be tasked to analyse it, provide a proposal, and also, there, a decision will be taken at the next FIFA Council meeting," he said.
The review could result in the award being abolished or reformed, although FIFA has not yet announced a final decision.
Complaints over Infantino's neutrality
The controversy has also prompted formal complaints against Infantino.
Human rights organisation FairSquare submitted a complaint to the FIFA Ethics Committee, accusing him of violating his duty of neutrality by endorsing Trump.
The Norwegian Football Association (NFF) also filed complaints across FIFA committees, seeking a formal examination of the decision and accountability.
NFF President Lise Klaveness called for the award to be abolished, arguing that it falls outside FIFA's responsibilities.
"We want to see it 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 said.
In an official statement, the NFF said: "The purpose is to raise these issues formally with the appropriate bodies, to have them examined, relevant evidence obtained and accountability for the conclusions reached."
The complaints have added a governance dimension to the dispute, with questions about the award's purpose and the process behind its presentation now part of the wider review.
Criticism over timing and wider scrutiny
The award also drew criticism over the circumstances surrounding its presentation. Critics noted that it was presented less than 24 hours after a deadly US military air strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea.
Subsequent foreign policy developments, including the US-Israel war on Iran, intensified the backlash against the award.
Australia midfielder Jackson Irvine criticised the decision, arguing that it undermined football's stated commitment to human rights and positive change.
"As an organisation, you would have to say decisions like the one that we saw awarding this peace prize makes a mockery of what they're trying to do with the human rights charter and trying to use football as a global driving force for good and positive change in the world..." Irvine said.
He added: "Decisions like that feel like they just set us back in the perceived market of what football currently is, especially at the top level, where it's becoming so disconnected from society..."
Craig Mokhiber, a former UN official, called the award a "truly shameful development".
"Not satisfied with two years of FIFA complicity in genocide in Palestine, Infantino and his cronies have now invented a new 'peace prize' in order to curry favour with Donald Trump," he said.
The dispute comes as Infantino faces separate criticism over an abandoned plan to sell a 20% commercial stake in the World Cup to private investors for $4.2 billion.
The review of the peace prize will give FIFA's council an opportunity to decide whether the award should continue, be reformed or be discontinued. Its decision is expected to follow the committee's recommendations ahead of the December 16 meeting in Doha.