Donald Trump won FIFA’s first peace prize on Friday evening. The president of the United States received the award during the draw for the World Cup in his own country from Gianni Infantino, the president of the world football association with whom he has built up a good relationship in recent years.
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Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize.
Reuters
Much to his dismay, Trump missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year. It went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. The World Football Association then calledFIFA Peace Prize‘ in life. FIFA chief Gianni Infantino seems keen to win over the president. He developed a close bond with Trump in recent months. Infantino, for example, was a high-profile attendee in October at a political summit in Egypt where a ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Hamas.
Infantino also built close ties with the powers that be in the organizing country: President Putin and the Qatari royal family, in the run-up to the 2018 (in Russia) and 2022 (in Qatar) World Cups. It helped him make the tournaments a commercial success.
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The prize therefore seems mainly intended to appease Trump. Infantino presented him with a gold cup and a medal and showered him with compliments for his efforts to bring more peace to the world. Trump in turn thanked the Swiss. “The world has become a safer place in the past year,” Trump said. There were no nominees for the peace prize, nor were there any jury members.
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