Norwegian FA chief urges FIFA to scrap peace prize to avoid politics

The Norwegian Football Federation, through its president Lise Klaveness, has taken a strong stance against FIFA's foray into awarding peace prizes. Klaveness argues that such initiatives, like the recent award to U.S. President Donald Trump, draw FIFA into unnecessary political controversies. From Norway's perspective, the nation's own Nobel Institute has a long-standing, independent mandate for awarding peace prizes, and FIFA should not attempt to replicate this role.

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We (the NFF) want to see it (the FIFA peace prize) abolished. We don’t think its part of FIFA’s mandate to give such a prize, we think we have a Nobel Institute that does that job independently already.

This call for abolition reflects a broader concern within Norwegian sports governance about maintaining the integrity and apolitical nature of international sports bodies. The NFF believes that by engaging in political awards, FIFA risks undermining its core mission and potentially breaching its own ethical guidelines. The federation's support for an investigation into the recent award further underscores its commitment to transparency and accountability within FIFA.

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We think it’s important for football federations, confederations and also FIFA to try to avoid situations where this arm’s-length distance to state leaders is challenged, and these prizes will typically be very political if you don’t have real good instruments and experience to make them independent, with juries and criteria et cetera.

While international coverage might focus on the specific controversy surrounding the Trump award, the Norwegian viewpoint emphasizes the principle at stake: the separation of sports from potentially divisive political gestures. For Norway, a nation deeply associated with peace and diplomacy through the Nobel Prizes, this is not just about FIFA's internal governance but about upholding a global standard for recognizing peace efforts. The NFF's position is a clear assertion that sports organizations should focus on their athletic mandates rather than venturing into politically charged arenas.

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That is full-time work, it’s so sensitive, I think 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.