What is the FIFA Peace Prize worth? Probably nothing. But that’s good enough for Donald Trump

Donald Trump admiring his ‘Peace’ medallion. Next to him, FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Screen shot: ap/YouTube

You did not realise the bottom had a basement, but, apparently, it did. It is where desperation reside, where it found the perfect opportunity to emerge for the world to see. In a wonderful development for world peace, FIFA—yes, the football association—has invented a new “peace prize”, one with no historical weight or intellectual tradition behind it. This is not to be mistaken for the one the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards yearly, which Donald Trump has been desperate to win, but lost to Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado. This is a football accolade, a free goal by fluke. And it was just awarded to the most deserving: Donald Trump, of course. In a ceremony held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (ready to be renamed), FIFA president Gianni Infantino presented the award, in the form of a medallion, to the clearly-eager awardee. This is probably the best Christmas present he has ever received. It’s a genuine shame it can’t be worn as a cap, which is his usual sole requirement for sartorial high value, provided it’s red and can proclaim a slogan.

Mr Trump, in his presidential uniform of bulky/lumpy suit, that padded armour of a man forever bracing for applause, received his prize as if collecting a golf trophy from a club tournament he was sure to win anyway. Can people be so desperate—both the giver and the recipient? There lies the elegant, barbed kernel of the joke: the desperation is mutual. For FIFA, it is likely, as critics see it, “legitimacy laundering”. The association has been battered by corruption scandals, so inventing a “Peace Prize” is a way to cloak itself in moral authority. And, honouring Donald Trump, reportedly Mr Infantino’s chum, FIFA secures goodwill from the U.S., ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Whether peace or geopolitics is the real message, it’s hard to tell. If FIFA thrives on ceremony, then a simple draw ceremony is the equivalent of a three-hour PowerPoint presentation on cross-border customs documentation. A new award is a way to stage another ritual. The meaning is irrelevant.

Trump has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, but missed out. This would be an ideal consolation prize although why he, the “most powerful man in the world”, needed consoling isn’t clear. Perhaps, the ceremony let him perform statesmanship without the messy burden of actual diplomacy. The award, notably, came less than 24 hours after the Trump administration carried out another deadly strike in the Caribbean. We can’t erase this in our minds: peace as a medal pinned over fresh blood. The disturbing part is not that people laugh at the irony, but that institutions normalise the contradiction by staging it as legitimate ceremony. On stage was a man in a suit that doesn’t fit, receiving a peace prize that doesn’t fit, from an organization whose moral costume doesn’t fit either. If there can be a FIFA peace prize, what about the NBA peace prize? Perhaps the WNBA might issue theirs. Or the NFL? And at the upcoming SEA Games, even the Sea Games peace prize. That would be nutsy, but neat.