50 European lawmakers urge FIFA to probe Infantino over Trump peace prize

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Fifty members of the European Parliament have urged FIFA’s ethics committee to investigate their president Gianni Infantino for awarding a ‘peace prize’ to US President Donald Trump.

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The MEPs signed a letter, supporting a complaint by British-based sports human rights lobbying group FairSquare in December.

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The letter, dated June 29 and released on Thursday night by FairSquare, said that FIFA’s code of ethics required Infantino “remain politically neutral”.

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The letter made clear that the 50 MEPs from 13 European countries were echoing FairSquare.

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It quoted the NGO’s request that FIFA’s “ethics committee investigate whether the decisions to introduce an annual FIFA peace prize and then award the prize to President Trump were taken by the FIFA Council or by the bureau of the council or unilaterally by Mr Infantino himself”.

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The MEPS added: “This complaint represents an opportunity for FIFA to prove its commitment to political neutrality, transparency, and accountability.”

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Of FIFA’s 211 member nations, only Norway, whose football federation in June wrote a letter calling for an investigation, has so far joined criticism of the ‘peace prize’.

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FairSquare said in an accompanying press release that the letter was “the most significant intervention by European policymakers into misgovernance and rule breaking at the top of the world game since the European Parliament called on Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter to resign in 2015”.

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Blatter announced his resignation in June 2015, shortly after he was re-elected president.

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The 50 MEPS are primarily Social Democrats, Liberals, and Greens. The four lead signatories were Barry Andrews from Ireland, Lara Wolters of the the Netherlands, Dane Niels Fuglsang and German Sebastian Everding.

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The letter also criticised FIFA’s links with Saudi Arabia, which will host the 2034 World Cup, and FIFA’s recent sponsorship deal with that country’s national oil and gas company, Aramco, which the MEPs called “the world’s biggest corporate polluter”.

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AFP

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