Council refers the prize to a committee

FIFA's Council met in Zurich on 15 October 2026, and several members pressed President Gianni Infantino either to overhaul the Peace Prize or to abolish it. The Council handed the question to the football social responsibility committee, a 22-person body whose deputy chairperson is Javier Zanetti, the former Inter and Argentina defender. The committee will assess whether the award should continue and, if so, in what form. It could decide the prize should no longer go to politicians, or it could recommend scrapping it outright. Nothing has been decided yet, and the prize was not killed off at the meeting, although questions about it were raised. The committee is expected to report before the next Council meeting on 16 December in Doha.

Members split between abolition and depoliticisation

Media reports agreed that several Council members demanded the prize be abolished, while others asked for it to be depoliticised. A Council member told the Guardian that the most likely option under discussion was a redesign that limits the prize to figures from football, with an explicit bar on politicians. Some members also worried that Trump could react sharply, possibly causing a diplomatic incident, if he did not approve the person chosen for a future award. Debbie Hewitt, a FIFA vice-president and president of the English Football Association, described the procedure after the meeting.

“There's a decision taken to look at the peace prize and to take that through the social committee”

Hewitt said other questions were raised, including whether there should have been a prize at all, how the award was decided, and whether a replacement should exist. She said the social committee would answer them.

How the prize was created and awarded

FIFA announced the Peace Prize on 5 November 2025 as an annual award for people who take exceptional actions for peace, and N-tv reported that the organisation had not consulted fans or national associations beforehand. A month later, at the World Cup draw in Washington in December 2025, Infantino presented Trump with the trophy and a medal. The New York Times reports that the FIFA Council never signed off on the award, which is the body's main decision-making forum. FIFA justified the choice by citing Trump's role in the October 2025 ceasefire and hostage exchange agreed by Israel and Hamas, along with his peace efforts in other regions. Infantino said Trump "definitely deserved" the prize, and that remark led to accusations that he had breached FIFA's political neutrality rules. Months after the award, Trump launched air strikes in Iran, and that conflict is still ongoing.

Wider criticism and other disputes

Minky Worden, director for global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, told ntv.de before the 2026 World Cup that the prize amounted to a form of corruption, noting that there were no nominees, no jury and no criteria. Infantino apologised to Council members in Zurich on 15 October for mistakes linked to the withdrawn FIFA Forward Enterprise plan. Critics say they still lack full explanations about his role in that plan, in the overturned suspension of Folarin Balogun at the World Cup and in the Peace Prize. FIFA said a review of its disciplinary procedures will be carried out by its Legal Committee after Balogun's suspension was overturned following a call from Trump to Infantino. Calls for Infantino to resign followed the scrapping of the FFE plan, but he is standing for re-election in March 2027.

What happens next

The social responsibility committee's recommendation is due before the Council meeting on 16 December in Doha, where FIFA says a decision on the prize will be taken. Until then the award's future remains open, and Trump is still the only recipient.