Norway urges FIFA to scrap Peace Prize and back ethics review

Norwegian FA president Lise Klaveness has called on FIFA to abolish its Peace Prize, arguing the award drags the governing body into politics and weakens the guardrails that protect its commercial and regulatory position.Klaveness said Norway’s board will also back a complaint by human rights group FairSquare asking FIFA’s Ethics Committee to review whether the prize breached FIFA rules on political impartiality.“We (the NFF) want to see it (the FIFA peace prize) abolished,” Klaveness said. “We don't think it's part of FIFA's mandate to give such a prize, we think we have a Nobel Institute that does that job independently already.”FIFA introduced the prize and awarded its first edition to US President Donald Trump in December at the 2026 World Cup draw, a decision that triggered criticism across parts of the football governance and human rights community.Klaveness said football bodies should avoid scenarios where “this arm's-length distance to state leaders is challenged”, and warned such awards become political without robust independence, criteria and governance.“That is full-time work, it's so sensitive,” she said. “From a resource angle, from a mandate angle, but most importantly from a governance angle I think it should be avoided also in the future.”FairSquare’s complaint alleges the award and the process around it may have breached FIFA’s own ethical guidelines, putting pressure on FIFA to demonstrate clear decision-making structures and transparency.FairSquare chief executive Nick McGeehan said: “This is very encouraging news. It definitely increases the pressure on FIFA to follow through.”“It’s encouraging that there are people within soccer who are taking this seriously and want to hold FIFA accountable, demanding that they adhere to their own regulations and that this be done in an open and transparent manner,” McGeehan said.At issue for FIFA is not only reputational risk but operational impact across a tournament cycle in which host government relationships, sponsor sensitivities and stakeholder trust are central to delivery.Any formal ethics process could also prompt questions from commercial partners about governance discipline, given the World Cup’s heavy reliance on multinational sponsorship and complex public sector coordination.Klaveness said the complaint should be handled to a defined timetable, with the rationale and outcome published.“There should be checks and balances on these issues,” she said, adding that the process should have “a transparent timeline, and that the reasoning and the conclusion should be transparent.”The next step is whether FIFA’s Ethics Committee opens a review and how FIFA positions the Peace Prize within its wider institutional framework as tournament preparations accelerate into the final stretch before kick-off.