What is the FIFA Peace Prize? Trump wins peace prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino; watch

FIFA launched a new Peace Prize Football Unites the World, awarding it for the first time to President Donald Trump during the 2026 World Cup draw.

Published on: Dec 6, 2025, 24:07:05 IST

By Shirin Gupta

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On December 5, at the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented the inaugural Peace Prize to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

US President Donald Trump wears the FIFA Peace Prize during the draw for the 2026 FIFA Football World Cup on December 5, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (AFP)

What is the FIFA Peace Prize?

The global football body FIFA announced in a press release on November 5, 2025, the creation of a new annual recognition titled the FIFA Peace Prize Football Unites the World.

The award is meant to honor “individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace” and worked to unite people worldwide through their efforts. Infantino described the award as not just a FIFA honour, but one from the world’s 5 billion football fans.

President Trump is the first recipient

In a ceremony where he donned a gold medal and accepted a trophy symbolizing global unity, Trump was praised for his “role” in global diplomacy, particularly his self-claimed involvement in brokering ceasefires and de-escalating conflicts around the world.

The award is a new category in the FIFA Council, and Trump is the very first recipient of the award.

Controversy surrounding the award

Human Rights Watch (HRW) publicly denounced the Peace Prize, noting that there has been “no transparent procedure, no nominees and no jury” for the award. HRW argued the Prize was “news even to the FIFA Council.”

HRW’s global sports director, Minky Worden, said the award comes “against a backdrop of violent detentions of immigrants, National Guard deployments in US cities, and the cancellation of FIFA’s own anti-racism and anti-discrimination campaigns.”

She warned that the Prize risks “tainting” the credibility of the sport and that the award risks trivializing real global peace efforts and ignoring continuing human-rights concerns.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shirin Gupta
Shirin Gupta is a content producer with the Hindustan Times. She covers everything between politics, entertainment and sports at the US desk. Shirin got interested in political journalism during her time as a web editor at her college newspaper NCC News in Syracuse when she first started seeing the effects of national politics in life of her fellow colleagues. Shirin has worked on a wide range of fast-moving and developing stories locally when she was at NCC editing accessible reports for the audience. Her current role requires her to track real-time updates, verify information and present balanced coverage across diverse beats. Covering US politics from an international newsroom perspective has further deepened her understanding of how domestic decisions can have far-reaching global consequences. With a keen interest in international affairs, Shirin continues to build her expertise in geopolitics, policy shifts, and cross-border developments. She aims to learn and evolve her reporting in matters of geopolitics and international issues. Outside the newsroom Shirin writes about books and music for her personal blog. She is an avid consumer of pop culture and reveres literature.Read More

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