{"id":298722,"date":"2025-12-04T15:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/298722\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T15:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:01:07","slug":"revealed-myanmar-junta-crony-given-key-role-behind-fifa-peace-prize-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/298722\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealed: Myanmar junta \u2018crony\u2019 given key role behind Fifa peace prize | Fifa"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the timing that set off the first alarm bells. With Donald Trump brooding over missing out on the Nobel peace prize, and shortly before Gianni Infantino<\/a>, the president of world football\u2019s governing body, Fifa, was due to meet the US president in Miami, an announcement was made.<\/p>\n

In a press release and a post on his personal Instagram account last month, Infantino said Fifa<\/a> would launch its very own peace prize, to be awarded each year to \u201cindividuals who help unite people in peace through unwavering commitment and special actions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Who could possibly be in the running on 5 December when the winner is announced at the glittery draw in Washington for next year\u2019s World Cup<\/a> in the US, Canada and Mexico?<\/p>\n

Infantino had already been accused of a breach of Fifa\u2019s neutrality rules during an unconventional appearance next to his \u201cfriend\u201d Trump at a Gaza peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should all support what he\u2019s doing because I think it is looking pretty good,\u201d Infantino had said.<\/p>\n

Trump and Infantino pose for a photo at a world leaders\u2019 summit on ending the Gaza war in Sharm el-Sheikh in October. Photograph: Getty Images<\/p>\n

The subsequent lack of information about how the inaugural award-winner would be chosen could not fail to be a cause of further disquiet for those concerned this could just be a sop to Trump.<\/p>\n

Those misgivings may now deepen. The Guardian has learned that the Fifa prize is seen internally as its version of the president\u2019s award <\/a>at Uefa, the European football body, suggesting Infantino\u2019s say will be decisive.<\/p>\n

It is also understood that a new \u201csocial responsibility\u201d committee within Fifa has been given the central role in devising the \u201cprocess\u201d through which winners will be chosen \u2013 but will not sit before this year\u2019s recipient is announced.<\/p>\n

The background of the chair of the committee tasked with coming up with a proposal on the process may not convince everyone that he will speak truth to power either.<\/p>\n

He is Zaw Zaw, the 59-year-old president of the Myanmar<\/a> football federation for the past two decades who, along with his company, Max Myanmar, was the subject of EU and US economic sanctions at various points between 2009 and 2016.<\/p>\n

The US state department described him in a press release in 2009 as one of the \u201ccronies\u201d of Myanmar\u2019s brutal ruling military junta as it suppressed democracy and violated human rights.<\/p>\n

Zaw Zaw (centre) receives an Asian Football Confederation lifetime achievement award from Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa and Infantino in May 2024. Photograph: SOPA Images Limited\/Alamy<\/p>\n

According to US diplomatic cables from 2009 and leaked in 2010, Zaw Zaw, who was again described as \u201cone of Burma\u2019s up-and-coming cronies\u201d, had interests in gems, cement and bottling plants, among other things, as well as being chair of the Myanmar football federation, and owner of Delta United, one of the professional football teams in what was then a new Myanmar national league.<\/p>\n

\u201cContacts confirm that Zaw Zaw hired senior general Than Shwe\u2019s grandson to play on the team,\u201d the leaked cables went on, with reference to the country\u2019s then dictator, who had been accused by the US of overseeing severe human rights abuses, including \u201cextrajudicial killings\u201d, custodial deaths, disappearances, rape and torture.<\/p>\n

The Myanmar football federation did not respond to a request for comment. In an interview in 2013 with the South Morning China Post, Zaw Zaw was reported as saying that his only crime was \u201cin this poor country, I have become rich\u201d. He added: \u201cOnly the government has projects,. If I don\u2019t do projects with them, who will I do projects with?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick McGeehan, a co-director of FairSquare, a human rights advocacy group that published a report on Fifa last year, said Infantino\u2019s personal announcement of the peace prize, seemingly without the involvement of Fifa\u2019s council, the main decision-making body, was quite typical of the man.<\/p>\n

Infantino was elected as Fifa president in 2016. Photograph: Dylan Martinez\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Television crews at the 2022 Qatar World Cup had reportedly been ordered to show Infantino at least once during matches. An inscription on the Fifa club World Cup trophy read \u201cinspired by FIFA president Gianni Infantino\u201d.<\/p>\n

But McGeehan said the Guardian\u2019s findings highlighted a deeper problem at the Zurich-based sporting body. \u201cThese developments certainly suggest that this peace prize award process is being reverse-engineered to ensure the favoured result of President Infantino,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a structural problem. Infantino is like a sort of increasingly clownish symptom of the problem, but he is not the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extraordinary Fifa congress held in February 2016, where delegates voted to adopt a radical reform package. Photograph: Patrick B Kraemer\/EPA<\/p>\n

In February 2016, delegates at a Fifa extraordinary congress in Zurich voted 176 to 22 in favour of adopting a radical reform package intended to herald a new dawn for an organisation that had been mired in scandals.<\/p>\n

Rolling crises at the body had culminated a year earlier with more than a dozen plainclothes Swiss police officers, acting under instructions from the US Department of Justice (DoJ), entering the Baur Au Lac hotel in Zurich and arresting seven senior Fifa officials<\/a> as part of an investigation into bribery and corruption.<\/p>\n

There is no suggestion of similar corruption today, said McGeehan, but he argued that key changes proposed at this new dawn had not been properly implemented.<\/p>\n

For example, the number of committees within Fifa has gone up rather than down as proposed, he noted. Fifa says this offers more oversight. FairSquare suggested it provided more opportunities for patronage.<\/p>\n

A report published last year by FairSquare argued that the power of Fifa\u2019s most senior and powerful officials was \u201crooted in a model of patronage that disincentivises ethical conduct\u201d, with the national members seeking funds, or even lucrative committee positions, and those at the top of the governing body requiring political support for their climb up the greasy career pole. Fifa has described FairSquare\u2019s findings as \u201cunfair\u201d.<\/p>\n

Infantino was elected as Fifa president in 2016 on a platform of reform of its institutions but also that of increasing revenues to member associations, McGeehan said. \u201cThese two things are in absolute tension,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Infantino reacts after winning the Fifa presidential election in Zurich in 2016. Photograph: Olivier Morin\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

As to why Infantino would want to cosy up to certain leaders, McGeehan suggested that part of the story was that Infantino appeared \u201csmitten\u201d with Trump as well as Saudi Arabia\u2019s de factor ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, whose country will host the men\u2019s World Cup in 2034.<\/p>\n

There were, though, also structural incentives that pushed Infantino to cleave close to leaders with power and money, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only year Fifa makes money is in a men\u2019s World Cup year,\u201d McGeehan said. \u201cSo every men\u2019s World Cup year, you need to squeeze as much money as possible out of your host. The way that you do that is you stick as closely to them as possible, because you\u2019re going to take all of the broadcasting money, all of the sponsorship money, and you\u2019re going to pass all the cost on to them, all the costs for hosting Saudi 2034, all the costs for hosting US 2026. You\u2019re going to ask them for tax exemptions. So the whole process cleaves the president closer to these people.<\/p>\n

A picture taken in a Saudi football fan tent in Riyadh, where a projector screening the 2018 World Cup match between Russia and Saudi Arabia showed Mohammed bin Salman, Infantino and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, seated together. Photograph: Fayez Nureldine\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cInfantino clearly likes [Trump and Prince Mohammed], and they probably recognise that he is a man with a big ego, but there\u2019s a strategic reason he needs to do it because he needs their political support to deliver the revenue that entrenches his political support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Cockburn, Amnesty International\u2019s head of labour rights and sport, said that while there was lip service and even structures that suggested human rights considerations were at the core of Fifa\u2019s decision-making, it appeared that \u201cfinance and power\u201d remained the priority.<\/p>\n

McGeehan said he was concerned by what he viewed as Infantino\u2019s \u201cclear violation of the duty of neutrality of the Fifa code of ethics\u201d. \u201cThere\u2019s this incredible effort to sort of talk about transparency and accountability and all that,\u201d he said, \u201cbut not change the way it\u2019s actually done\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Fifa spokesperson said that \u201conly Fifa could be criticised for recognising those who want world peace\u201d<\/a> and \u201crather than be criticised for endorsing peace in a divided world, Fifa should be recognised for what it is \u2013 a global governing body that wants to make the future a brighter place\u201d.<\/p>\n

This article was amended on 4 December 2025 to add Canada as a co-host of the 2026 World Cup alongside the US and Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the timing that set off the first alarm bells. With Donald Trump brooding over missing out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-298722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}