Bluesky

Outside of what DC locals have dubbed the “Vichy” Kennedy Center, people gathered on Friday to protest the 2026 World Cup draw. Campaigners showed up for many reasons—from the security apparatus the World Cup will bring to North American cities to the ways ICE may be planning to use the cup as a hunting ground for undocumented immigrants—but a uniting disgust was that the FIFA boss, a sleazy supplicant to the world’s oligarchs named Gianni Infantino, was going to do something he loves even more than soccer: Smooch Donald Trump’s ass. Infantino would use the closely watched draw to bestow a made-up award, the FIFA Peace Prize, to a president inflicting violence both at home and abroad.

As Free DC protester Slobodan Milic explained, “We don’t want ICE in our cities during the World Cup or anytime. And this Peace Prize only brands FIFA as the most corrupt organization on the planet. [Infantino] gets the Kennedy Center for free, which usually costs millions, because they flatter the Dear Leader.”

Infantino is groveling in support of Trump’s favorite narrative: that Trump is the “president of peace.” Sure, Trump ordered the Defense Department to change its name to the “Department of War,” and yes, PolitiFact labeled his claim that “in a period of just seven months, I have ended seven unendable wars” as “mostly false.” And while his addled mind is prone to blurting self-aggrandizing falsities—sometimes he claims to have ended six wars, sometimes it’s eight, sometimes he incorrectly claims that no other president than he has ever ended a war—one thing is for sure: Trump has overseen an alarming increase in government violence.

His administration has orchestrated the droning of of alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean, warmed the hearts of war criminals everywhere by sanctioning the International Criminal Court, cozied up to some of the most brutal dictators, armed the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and unleashed a campaign of terror right here at home, with masked agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement marauding through city after city. It’s as if Trump is trying to troll Orwell’s ghost, embodying his “war is peace” shibboleth in gruesome Technicolor.

Despite all this, Infantino handed the inaugural—and bizarre-looking—FIFA Peace Prize to Trump, explaining he was chosen to be given this golden spittoon, because, “This is what we want from a leader, a leader that cares about the people. We want to live in a safe world, in a safe environment. We want to unite. That’s what we do here today. That’s what we do at the World Cup, Mr. President, and you definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained in your way, but you obtained it in an incredible way.”

According to reporting by Adam Crafton at The New York Times, the FIFA president’s unilateral decision to establish the award blindsided the powerful FIFA Council—composed of eight vice-presidents, 28 members at large, and chaired by Infantino. Some members of the FIFA Council learned of the prize via a press release. When Human Rights Watch penned a letter to FIFA in mid-November requesting basic info about the prize—its search criteria, the nomination process, the judges for the award—the group was stonewalled.

The prize—officially dubbed the “FIFA Peace Prize – Football Unites the World”—claims to honor “the enormous efforts of those individuals who unite people, bringing hope for future generations.” At the ceremony, Infantino gushed, “You can always count, Mr. President, on my support, on the support of the entire football community, or soccer community, to help you make peace and make the world prosper all over the world.”

The mutually beneficial chumminess between Trump and Infantino is well-established. Trump has issued more White House invitations to Infantino than any world leader. Trump invited Infantino to attend the Summit for Peace in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt where Israel and Hamas signed the ceasefire agreement that Israel regularly violates. Infantino was the only sports official at the event. He had no political role. This didn’t stop him from posting about it on Instagram—as he does with all things Trump—like a besotted teenager. 

What Trump gets out of this is the opportunity to be center stage at the most watched televised program on the planet. His cavernous, unfillable ego craves what even for him would be a titanic amount of attention. Him waving from an owner’s box, with Fox News lowering the volume on the boos, would be a visual expression of soft power he cannot resist. What Infantino gets is proximity to that power, and he has no shame about looking like a cheap flunky.

At an event in Miami in early November, Infantino heaped praise on Trump, who was in attendance, stating, “We should all support what he’s doing because I think it’s looking good.” In doing so, Infantino not only provided another example of his shamelessness, but he also likely breached FIFA rules on political neutrality. According to FIFA statutes, “FIFA remains neutral in matters of politics and religion. Exceptions may be made with regard to matters affected by FIFA’s statutory objectives.” Trump likes his sycophancy dolloped on thick, and the ever-oleaginous Infantino obliged: “I’m really lucky. I have a great relationship with President Trump, where I consider him a really close friend.” The FIFA president added, “Of course he’s being very helpful in everything we are doing for the World Cup.”

All this follows Infantino’s Instagram campaign for Trump to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In early October, as a ceasefire proposal between Hamas and Israel inched forward, Infantino posted, “President Donald J. Trump definitely deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his decisive actions.” He, of course, has not commented about Israel ignoring the “ceasefire” whenever the mood strikes. 

Back in reality, the 2026 World Cup—and Infantino’s toadying—enables Trump, as many protesters pointed out, to turbocharge his violent deportation machine. 

That machine’s intersection with the World Cup is already whirring at a disturbing pitch. This week, Human Rights Watch revealed that at last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup final, an asylum seeker attending the match with his two children—aged 14 and 10—was detained by local police in a parking lot near MetLife Stadium in New Jersey after he tried to use a drone to take a family photo. Instead of issuing him a citation and releasing him so he could attend the match with his kids, police notified ICE who detained the man and ultimately deported him. This despite the fact that in 2022, the man and his family—who have kept their identity and country of origin under wraps—fled their home country in fear of political violence. Then came three months in ICE detention. His asylum claim was rejected, and the man decided not to appeal his case. “It’s so psychological what they do to you there,” he explained, “You want to get out so badly.”

“The intersection of immigration enforcement and major sporting events creates a perfect storm of risk and chaos,” Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, told The Nation. “People who should be able to enjoy a soccer match with their children instead face the terror of indefinite detention, family separation, and removal.”

Days before the draw, Human Rights Watch held a press conference where  numerous civil liberties and media-rights groups sounded the alarm over staging the 2026 World Cup in the United States. 

“While FIFA and host cities prepare for the games,” said Jamil Dakwar, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Human Rights Program, “the Trump administration is escalating dangerous policies that put immigrant communities, foreign visitors, and residents at risk…. FIFA risks becoming a stage for authoritarianism” and “a public relations tool to normalize an increasingly authoritarian US government.”

Jamal Watkins, the senior vice president of strategy and advancement at the NAACP, raised a crucial question: “Some folks will say, ‘What are the chances of a family being torn apart and folks being detained in an extrajudicial process and disappearing?’”

He then answered his own hypothetical: “Very high. You see it on the news almost every day. This is not a conspiracy theory. It’s happening in our communities,” adding, “If FIFA turns a blind eye to this, then they actually are picking a political side. 

As for the protesters, they held signs that said, “No Cup with ICE” and “Red card for war crimes,” but one chant especially deserves replication: “Soccer is the World’s Game. ICE is the world’s shame.”