This isn't the first time controversy has consumed FIFA. Some will remember July 20, 2015, when FIFA president Sepp Blatter arrived at the organization's Zurich headquarters for his first major press conference since announcing plans to leave office. FIFA was then in the grip of an international corruption crisis: less than two months earlier, Swiss authorities had arrested seven senior football officials after the United States charged multiple figures across the sport with racketeering, fraud, and bribery.
Before Blatter could begin speaking, British comedian Simon Brodkin approached the stage in character as "Jason Bent," placed banknotes in front of Blatter, and announced the money was for North Korea's bid to host the 2026 World Cup. As security removed him, he threw the remaining bills over Blatter's head, leaving the FIFA president standing amid a shower of cash before the stage had to be cleared.
The stunt turned FIFA's central scandal into a literal image: football's most powerful administrator buried in money. Blatter returned to announce FIFA would elect his successor in February 2016, but the crisis engulfing the organization didn't end there. Brodkin was later charged by Swiss police after FIFA filed a complaint, while the corruption investigations that inspired his protest continued dismantling the governing structure Blatter had led for 17 years.
But Gianni Infantino, full name Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino, has taken FIFA to a new level of controversy. The Swiss football administrator has served as FIFA president for roughly a decade, after serving as UEFA Secretary General from 2009 to 2016, where he oversaw the organization's tournament expansion. He has also been an IOC member since 2020. As FIFA president, Infantino has overseen three World Cups: Russia 2018, Qatar 2022, and the ongoing 2026 tournament across the US, Mexico, and Canada.
The Peace Prize
Infantino's first major controversy of this cycle came on December 5, 2025, when he presented U.S. President Donald Trump with the inaugural "FIFA Peace Prize" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., moments before the official draw for the 2026 World Cup, a tournament featuring 48 nations. The award, a newly created honor including a gold trophy, medal, and certificate, recognized what FIFA called Trump's "exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity." Infantino told Trump, "This is your prize, this is your peace prize." Trump called it "one of the great honors of my life."
The award drew swift, sharp criticism. Watchdog group FairSquare, joined by European politicians and Human Rights Watch, filed an ethics complaint with FIFA, arguing that handing a political leader an award for "peace and unity" was itself a breach of the organization's supposed neutrality. Critics also noted that neither the FIFA Council nor its vice presidents were consulted on how the winner was chosen. FIFA has never explained its selection process.
The Balogun Suspension
The second controversy centers on U.S. forward Folarin Balogun. In the Round of 32, Balogun received a straight red card for a foul on Bosnia and Herzegovina's Tarik Muharemovic, a sanction that automatically carries a one match suspension under FIFA's disciplinary rules and cannot normally be appealed.
Days later, FIFA reversed course, posting a brief, unexplained statement suspending the automatic ban for a one year probationary period and clearing Balogun to play against Belgium in the Round of 16. Trump publicly said he'd called Infantino to ask for the case to be reviewed. Reporting has since indicated that the reversal wasn't even a decision by the full disciplinary committee; a single FIFA official reportedly made the call alone, without input from the other members of the committee.
Balogun started against Belgium; the U.S. lost 4 to 1 and was eliminated. Infantino has denied any interference, saying in a statement that FIFA's "judicial bodies act independently" and "decide cases based on the applicable regulations and the specific facts before them." FairSquare has since asked the IOC, of which Infantino is a member, to investigate whether he broke rules on political neutrality, citing the Balogun case alongside his public support for Trump's Nobel Peace Prize bid and his role in creating the Peace Prize itself.
Between a peace prize handed to a sitting president with no transparent selection process, and a suspension reversal that reportedly bypassed FIFA's own disciplinary committee, these two episodes are enough on their own to sour me on this World Cup.
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