{"id":525298,"date":"2026-06-30T05:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/525298\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T05:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:37:14","slug":"irish-meps-join-calls-for-investigation-into-gianni-infantino-over-fifas-trump-peace-prize-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/525298\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish MEPs join calls for investigation into Gianni Infantino over Fifa\u2019s Trump peace prize \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the European Parliament<\/a> have submitted a letter to Fifa<\/a> calling for the football governing body to investigate its president Gianni Infantino<\/a> over the awarding of a Peace Prize to US president Donald Trump<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The letter, which has been seen by The Irish Times, is signed by 50 MEPs and is addressed to Infantino and the Fifa Council, the organisation\u2019s main decision-making body. It calls for Infantino to be investigated by Fifa\u2019s Ethics Committee. <\/p>\n

The letter describes the 2026 World Cup<\/a> as \u201cmired in controversy, from high ticket prices to visa issues\u201d and calls the awarding of the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize to Trump as \u201cperhaps the most troubling development of the tournament.\u201d Fifa announced the establishment of a Peace Prize in November last year, and presented it to Trump at the World Cup draw in Washington the following month. <\/p>\n

The MEPs endorse the recent submission of an ethics complaint against the Fifa president by NGO FairSquare, which alleges that Infantino\u2019s public endorsements of Trump violate Fifa rules regarding political neutrality. Separate from the awarding of the Peace Prize, Infantino said during an interview at the American Business Forum in Miami last November that \u201cwe should all support what [Trump] is doing [in the US] because I think it\u2019s looking pretty good.\u201d <\/p>\n

The letter also calls for Fifa to investigate the process by which the Peace Prize was inaugurated and awarded to Trump. It quotes FairSquare\u2019s earlier complaint requesting Fifa investigate whether or not the award was inaugurated and awarded unilaterally by Infantino or by a smaller body known as the Bureau of the Council, on which Infantino sits along with the heads of Fifa\u2019s six confederations. <\/p>\n

Signatories include nine Irish MEPs: Barry Andrews, Maria Walsh, Billy Kelleher, Cynthia N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa, Ciaran Mullooly, Lynn Boylan, Kathleen Funchion, Aodh\u00e1n \u00d3 R\u00edord\u00e1in, and Luke Flanagan. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is arguably the biggest global event of any kind. It is supposed to unite the world,\u201d Barry Andrews<\/a> told The Irish Times. \u201cYet when Fifa president Infantino favours one president over another, this brings Fifa and the whole tournament into disrepute.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur request in this letter is simple. We are merely asking for the Fifa Ethics Committee to fully investigate the awarding of the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize to president Trump and to ensure that due process is done. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the eyes of the world on Fifa and Infantino this summer, a proper investigation is the only way to ensure that the organisation fully upholds the core values of fairness, equality, and respect for human dignity. If Fifa is truly committed to political neutrality, transparency and accountability, here is no better chance to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifa did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the European Parliament have submitted a letter to Fifa calling for the football governing body to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32477,969,11450,2956,53114,61,60,112,4018],"class_list":["post-525298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-barry-andrews","tag-donald-trump","tag-european-parliament","tag-fifa","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}