50 MEPs Demand FIFA Investigate Trump's 'Peace Award'

Fifty Members of the European Parliament have joined the call for FIFA to investigate Gianni Infantino's awarding of a "Peace Award" to Donald Trump. This move supports a request made in December by the human rights organization, FairSquare.

"This letter represents the most significant intervention by European politicians against governance abuses and rule violations at the pinnacle of world football since the European Parliament called for Infantino's predecessor, Sepp Blatter, to resign in 2015," FairSquare stated on Friday.

In a letter dated Monday, 50 elected officials from 13 European countries, predominantly social democrats, liberals, and greens, "urgently call on FIFA's ethics committee to conduct with the utmost speed and sincerity" the investigation that the British NGO has been requesting for nearly seven months.

"As the eyes of the entire world turn to FIFA this summer during the World Cup, this request presents an opportunity for FIFA to demonstrate its commitment to political neutrality, transparency, and accountability," wrote the signatories, led by Ireland's Barry Andrews, the Netherlands' Lara Wolters, and Denmark's Niels Fuglsang.

Supported in early June by the Norwegian Football Federation – the only one among FIFA's 211 member nations – FairSquare accuses FIFA President Gianni Infantino of violating his "duty of neutrality," enshrined in Article 15 of the institution's ethics code, in order to benefit Donald Trump.

The organization specifically insists that the ethics committee "examine the circumstances" surrounding the unprecedented "FIFA Peace Award" presented to the American president last November, the criteria and procedures for which have never been clarified by the football governing body.

More broadly, FairSquare also highlighted Infantino's October call for Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as his favorable comments on Trump's domestic policies. "By clearly endorsing President Trump's political agenda at both national and international levels," his conduct jeopardizes "the integrity and reputation of football and of FIFA itself," the organization lamented.

Contacted for comment by AFP on Friday, FIFA did not respond to the letter from the European parliamentarians. Fundamentally, it has never addressed FairSquare's request, nor the criticisms surrounding the "peace award."