Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been accused of violating the organisation’s rules on political neutrality following his public support for US President Donald Trump. The complaint, lodged by the accountability group FairSquare, cites several instances where Infantino praised Trump, including presenting him with the inaugural Fifa peace prize at the World Cup draw in Washington DC last Friday.
In a letter to Fifa’s ethics committee, FairSquare highlighted Infantino’s Instagram post from October in which he said Trump “definitely deserves” the Nobel Peace Prize. At the World Cup draw, after a video about Trump was played, Infantino stated: “This is what we want from a leader … you definitely deserve the first Fifa peace prize … you can always count, Mr President, on my support.”
FairSquare also referenced a November interview in which Infantino said “we should all support what [Trump] is doing … because I think it’s looking pretty good”, and an Instagram post on Trump’s inauguration day where Infantino said: “Together we will make not only America great again, but also the entire world.”
The group argues that awarding a peace prize to a sitting political leader breaches Fifa’s duty of neutrality, and that the decision to introduce such a prize should have been taken by the Fifa Council, not unilaterally by the president. FairSquare’s programme director, Nicholas McGeehan, said the complaint is about more than Infantino’s support for Trump, but rather how Fifa’s governance structure has allowed Infantino to flout the rules.
