"It has no legitimacy, and it is clearly outside FIFA's mandate." That's not a disgruntled fan tweeting into the void — that's Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian football federation, formally demanding that FIFA's Ethics Committee investigate the organisation's own president.
The target is the FIFA Peace Prize, created by Gianni Infantino and awarded in its very first edition to Donald Trump at the World Cup draw in December. Norway, backed by human rights non-profit FairSquare, has now sent a letter to FIFA requesting an ethics review — citing Article 15 of FIFA's Code of Ethics, which requires all federation employees to "remain politically neutral."
What the complaint actually says
The core argument is straightforward: Infantino created an award with no basis in the FIFA Congress, published no criteria for it, and handed it to a sitting U.S. president months after it was already widely known Trump would receive it. Klaveness described this as a breach of FIFA's statutes on political neutrality. "We are critical of its creation," she told Norwegian outlet NRK. "It had no basis in the FIFA Congress."
When asked whether the prize should be abolished entirely, Klaveness didn't hedge. "Absolutely," she said.
If the complaint succeeds, Infantino could face a fine of around $12,730 and a ban from football activities for up to two years. That scenario seems unlikely given FIFA's institutional reluctance to discipline its own leadership, but the formal pressure is real.
FairSquare CEO Nick McGeehan was blunt about why Norway's involvement changes the weight of the complaint. "They can dismiss a complaint when it comes from us, but when it comes from an association that also has a board member at UEFA, it's on a whole different level of seriousness."
Not the first time Infantino has drawn this accusation
This isn't new territory for the FIFA president. In February, Infantino was photographed wearing a red "USA" cap with "45-47" on it — a piece of merchandise directly referencing Trump's two presidential terms. The International Olympic Committee cleared him of wrongdoing on that occasion.
The ceremony itself was something to behold. Infantino read aloud from a certificate explaining Trump's victory, citing the Abraham Accords, a peace deal regarding Gaza, an agreement between Cambodia and Thailand, and a Rwanda-DRC accord — and was met, according to reporting, with "sparse applause."
Norway is one of the 48 nations competing at this summer's World Cup, which gives its federation genuine standing in this dispute. FIFA will find it considerably harder to bury a formal complaint from a competing association than one from an outside human rights group. The Ethics Committee now has to at least respond — and that response will tell you everything about whether FIFA's rulebook means anything when it applies to the man running it.
