NEWS
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP PETITIONS FIFA OVER INFANTINO’S PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR DONALD TRUMP, ALLEGED BREACH OF POLITICAL NEUTRALITY RULES
A human rights organisation has accused FIFA president Gianni Infantino of breaching his organisation’s rules over his public support for Donald Trump and a peace prize awarded to the U.S. president.
FairSquare, a London-based human rights nonprofit, said Tuesday it filed requests for investigations into Infantino’s alleged breaches of FIFA’s statutory duty to be politically neutral. The organisation stated that its petition was prompted by a series of recent public comments and actions by the FIFA president that appear to compromise the global football body’s neutrality clause.
FIFA, when contacted, said its ethics committee does not comment on potential ongoing cases and could not confirm receiving the complaint. Under FIFA’s ethics code, violating the duty of neutrality carries a possible ban from soccer of up to two years, though it remains unclear if the case will be taken up by the committee.
Concerns have been growing among observers who believe that the FIFA-appointed ethics investigators and judges of today operate with less independence than the previous generation, who played a central role in the removal of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter a decade ago.
Infantino has repeatedly expressed views backing Trump and his policies. In October, Infantino used his Instagram account to say Trump “definitely deserves” the Nobel Peace Prize.
The FIFA leader has also closely aligned global football with the United States government ahead of the men’s 2026 World Cup, to be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, a tournament projected to earn more than $10 billion for FIFA.
During the World Cup tournament draw last Friday in Washington, D.C., political leaders of all three co-hosting nations joined Infantino on stage following Trump’s reception of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.
After a video celebrating Trump was played, Infantino declared: “This is what we want from a leader …you definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action for what you have obtained in your way but you obtained it in an incredible way and you can always count, Mr. President, on my support.”
In a separate appearance at the American Business Forum in Miami in November, Infantino added, “we should all support what [Trump] is doing [in the U.S.] because I think it’s looking pretty good.”
FairSquare’s letter also drew attention to a January 20 Instagram post by Infantino, made on the day of Trump’s inauguration. In the post’s video message, Infantino stated: “Together we will make not only America great again, but also the entire world.”
According to FairSquare, these actions collectively amount to violations of FIFA’s political neutrality.
“The award of a prize of this nature to a sitting political leader is in and of itself a clear breach of FIFA’s duty of neutrality,” the group said in its eight-page complaint.
The organisation further noted that FIFA has not publicly explained how Infantino created the peace prize, but individuals familiar with internal conversations said they only learned about it from media reports.
FairSquare warned that “If Mr. Infantino acted unilaterally and without any statutory authority this should be considered an egregious abuse of power.”
FairSquare has long scrutinised FIFA over issues including the human rights record of Saudi Arabia, the 2034 World Cup host; the influence of the kingdom’s oil giant Aramco, a top-tier World Cup sponsor; governance standards within FIFA; and the slow-moving investigation into alleged statutes breaches involving teams from Israeli settlements competing in a national league.
As global attention intensifies, the latest complaint adds to mounting pressure on FIFA’s leadership to clarify its internal checks, ethical standards, and degree of independence at a time when the football body continues to wield unprecedented global influence.