A Golden Globe for the President. FIFA Invented an Award — and Immediately Gave It to Trump

Donald Trump received a massive golden trophy, featuring four hands holding up the Earth, during the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington. FIFA President Gianni Infantino delivered a grandiose speech about peace and unity. Trump put on the medal and spoke about saving millions of lives. Everything looked beautiful, ceremonial, and slightly surreal.

There is just one problem: the award given to Trump had been invented only a month earlier. Specifically for this moment.

FIFA established the Peace Award in November 2025 — without discussion in the council, without nominees, without a jury, without any transparent process. They simply announced it — and the first laureate immediately emerged. A coincidence? Infantino introduced the award on November 6, just days after the Nobel Committee ignored Trump and instead gave the Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado. Trump had long wanted a Nobel Prize — it didn’t happen. But he received a football version from his good friend Gianni.

“I have an excellent relationship with President Trump, whom I consider a truly close friend,” Infantino said. Now it is clear how close.

Former FIFA head Sepp Blatter — a man hardly synonymous with transparency — reacted harshly: “Football should not be handing out Peace Prizes. I think it is wrong,” he told The Telegraph. Blatter added that he does not see any particular interest in football from Trump. Indeed, at the ceremony the U.S. president mentioned Pelé, suggested renaming the NFL, and explained that soccer is actually football. It looked as though he was thinking about the sport’s existence for the first time.

Honorary RFU president Vyacheslav Koloskov was even more direct: “Gianni is trying to express his personal attitude toward Trump, securing support during the World Cup. It is absolutely clear that FIFA has nothing to do with this Peace Award,” he told Sport-Express.

The history of Infantino’s relationship with Trump is truly striking. The FIFA president attended Trump’s second inauguration, participated in the Gaza peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, gave Trump a personalized 2026 World Cup ball, and in May postponed the FIFA congress in order to travel with Trump to Gulf countries. After the agreement between Israel and Hamas, Infantino wrote that Trump “definitely deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.”

When Trump did not receive the Nobel, Infantino invented his own.

FIFA’s “Social Responsibility Committee,” designated to play a major role in designing the award process, did not hold a single meeting before the winner was announced. The committee is headed by Zaw Zaw, president of Myanmar’s Football Federation, whom the U.S. State Department in 2009 called an “associate” of the military junta and accused of involvement in extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and torture. The U.S. and EU imposed sanctions on him from 2009 to 2016. This is the man now responsible for FIFA’s Peace Award.

“The award process is designed to ensure a favorable outcome for President Infantino,” Nick McGeehan, director of the human rights organization FairSquare, told The Guardian.

FIFA constantly insists on political neutrality. Clubs and players receive punishments for political gestures. Yet Infantino openly befriends one of the most influential politicians on the planet — and now gives him awards invented on the fly. The organization that is supposed to unite the world of football has turned into a tool of its president’s personal connections.

The White House press service posted a photo captioned “President of Peace.” Trump himself called the award “one of the greatest honors of my life” and added that the world has become safer and the U.S. stronger than it was a year ago under Biden.

Fans from Iran and Haiti will no longer be able to visit the World Cup due to U.S. migration policy. Journalists and officials face difficulties entering the country. Representatives of Iran’s national team initially refused to attend the draw at all.

But Infantino continues to speak about unity. And to hand out golden globes.

During the ceremony, Trump told journalists: “I don’t need awards. I need to save lives.” Half an hour later, he was already wearing the golden medal and thanking FIFA for “the greatest honor.”

FIFA created the Peace Award for one person — and nobody doubts it. Even Blatter, despite his own scandals, could not stay silent. A football organization with billion-dollar revenues has turned into a service for manufacturing awards for the political friends of its president.

The World Cup will begin on June 11, 2026. Will Trump be in the stands? Certainly. Will he receive more awards from FIFA? I wouldn’t be surprised. Will football retain even a drop of independence from politics? An open question.

The golden globe in Trump’s hands is a perfect metaphor. FIFA no longer unites the world. It serves those needed by its president.