More than 70 members of the European Parliament have urged European football associations to push for an investigation into FIFA President Gianni Infantino's dealings, particularly concerning his decision to award former U.S. President Donald Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December.
The lawmakers expressed their concerns in a letter to Infantino and FIFA council members, echoing an ethics complaint filed by the nonprofit organization FairSquare. They described the decision to award Trump the prize as "perhaps the most troubling development of the tournament."
The European Parliament members stated that FIFA "must address Fairsquare's ethics complaint and demonstrate that it upholds the core values of fairness, equality, and respect for human dignity." They also cited a separate instance where a "red card reversal" was deemed unjustifiable by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), suggesting a pattern of questionable decisions.
UEFA stated that when the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, "the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined." The European lawmakers' call for a probe into Infantino's ethics and his connections to Trump follows these concerns about FIFA's governance and decision-making processes.