Overview
- At the Washington, D.C., draw, Gianni Infantino presented a newly created FIFA Peace Prize to President Donald Trump about a month after the award was established.
- FIFA told Bild that staging a World Cup requires close, constructive ties with host authorities and pointed to the creation of a White House task force.
- DFB general manager Andreas Rettig told kicker that football events are not suitable venues for such prizes and cautioned against politicizing the sport.
- Rettig urged the DFB to avoid repeating what he called Qatar 2022’s central mistake by keeping polarizing societal debates away from the national team during 2026.
- Human Rights Watch and international media criticized the award’s lack of a transparent process with nominees or a jury, and reports noted Infantino had earlier backed Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.