Washington, DC – Players often face fines and bans from FIFA for displaying political messages, as the football governing body has long proclaimed a policy of political neutrality.

But on Friday, the association’s chief Gianni Infantino handed United States President Donald Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, further cementing his embrace of the Republican leader.

Critics pointed out that the award came less than 24 hours after the Trump administration carried out another deadly air strike in the Caribbean.

Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations official who has campaigned to suspend Israel from world football over its genocidal war in Gaza, called the award to Trump a “truly shameful development”.

Infantino has refused to take action against Israel, arguing that football “cannot solve geopolitical” issues.

“Not satisfied with two years of FIFA complicity in genocide in Palestine, Infantino and his cronies have now invented a new ‘peace prize’ in order to curry favour with Donald Trump,” Mokhiber told Al Jazeera.

He added that the award also aims to “obscure” Trump’s “disgraceful record” of support to Israel, his deadly strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea, and “gross violations of human rights” inside the US.

Infantino praises Trump

While presenting the prize on Friday, Infantino expressed support for Trump’s international deals, including the so-called Abraham Accords that established formal ties between Israel and several Arab states without resolving the question of Palestinian statehood.

“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, and that’s what we do here today, and that’s what we want to do at the World Cup,” Infantino said as he presented the award.

“Mr President, you definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained in your way, but you have obtained in an incredible way.”

Trump has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize but missed out on the award earlier this year.

He said the new FIFA recognition is one of the “great honours” he has received, and he repeated his claim that his presidency has saved millions of lives and ended eight wars.

The US president’s remarks were brief, but he still could not help but take a shot at the record of his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.

“The United States, one year ago, was not doing too well, and now I have to say we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world,” Trump said.

A departure from past statements

Infantino has previously warned against using football to stoke division. “There’s no more powerful tool than sport to unite the people,” he said in 2023. “Now we have to protect the autonomy of sport: the political neutrality of sport and to protect the values of sport.”

Two years later, critics point out that Infantino has created a prize to celebrate peace and unity, and then handed it to a president who called people from Somalia “garbage” just days prior.

“Giving Donald Trump a prize for peace is like giving Luis Suarez a prize for not biting people’s ears off,” football journalist Zach Lowy wrote on social media, referring to the Uruguayan forward who has been caught up in at least three biting incidents on the pitch throughout his career.

Infantino appears to have forged strong ties with Trump as the US prepares to co-host the World Cup with Mexico and Canada next year.

The FIFA president has been a regular guest at the White House, and in October, he attended a ceremony with Trump to formalise the Gaza truce in Egypt.

FIFA did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment by the time of publication.

The Democratic Party was among the critics taking aim at the new FIFA award. “Trump couldn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize so FIFA made one up for him,” it said in a social media post.

But rights advocates levelled more serious criticism at the US president, invoking his rights record and foreign policy.

Trump’s record

While Trump has helped broker some peace deals between warring parties, most recently between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he has been an advocate for increased military spending across the Western world.

Trump also ordered the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, and he has continued to arm Israel despite its well-documented abuses against Palestinians.

In the Western Hemisphere, Trump’s administration has also carried out 22 air strikes against vessels that it says are carrying drugs, killing at least 86 people. Legal experts have widely condemned the attacks as unlawful acts of extrajudicial killing.

Moreover, Trump has been amassing military assets near Venezuela, raising speculation that the US may go to war with the country to topple left-wing President Nicolas Maduro.

At home, Trump has intensified an anti-immigration crackdown that has led to the detention and attempted deportation of non-citizens. Some advocates have been targeted for their criticism of Israel, an act of free speech protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

“US President Donald Trump was just awarded the newly created ‘FIFA Peace Prize’,” Human Rights Watch said on the social media platform X.

“But his administration’s appalling human rights record certainly does not display ‘exceptional actions for peace and unity’.”

For his part, Mokhiber, the former UN official, said the “vulgar” prize to Trump must be rescinded.

“FIFA rules do not allow play on a muddy pitch. They certainly shouldn’t play on a bloody pitch. But that’s precisely where Infantino is leading FIFA,” he said.