FIFA's President, The US Leader and the Quest for Peace: An Association Football Approach
'THIS-ISM … THAT-ISM …'
When the Venezuelan opposition leader was awarded the current year's prestigious peace award for her "persistent work supporting civil liberties", Donald Trump responded displaying exactly the kind of magnanimous reaction people could predict. Having persistently conducted an effort of self-aggrandizement to make certain he received the honor personally, the president quickly claimed credit for the South American activist's triumph, enumerated his own personally declared and often debatable achievements in the field of global peacemaking and challenged the authority of the awarding body who chose not to present the recognition, cash prize and document to him.
While security concerns mean it has yet to be determined if the recently honored award recipient will emerge from seclusion to collect her honor directly at the Oslo ceremony in the final month, an especially overly deferential football association leader seems determined on appropriating her attention regardless. Certainly, Gianni Infantino has opted to award a peace prize of his original design in facing a global TV audience of numerous international football fans the previous week in the US city.
An individual who has over many years promoted the significance of preserving governmental issues out of football, specifically when they are the type of ideological stances he considers uncomfortable or just objects to, Infantino utilized his platform at the US economic conference in the Florida city to bang his drum about the capacity of football to bring together people of diverse ethnicities and belief, especially those who have extra $5,000-plus knocking around to acquire flexibly valued Geopolitics World Cup passes.
"In a growingly uncertain and fragmented international society, it is crucial to acknowledge the remarkable effort of individuals who labor diligently to end conflicts and connect communities in a mindset of tranquility", he announced. "Soccer stands for peace and representing the complete football community, the Fifa Peace Prize – The Game Brings Together will honor the enormous efforts of those individuals who unite people, offering confidence for coming years."
Yet which individual could he indicate? While the football official was careful not to offer clear signals concerning the person of the inaugural award's selected honoree, he did move into a probably distinct and flattering tribute to his current Close Associate (Or In The Short Term), Trump. His words certainly had the planned result. Around the world, the most skeptical of commentators were aligned in asserting they understood specifically who would be receiving the Pretend Peace Prize, with some even advancing to state completely unfounded claims that the judicially determined and sports rule-breaking man-baby under consideration might even have compelled the FIFA head to develop the award merely to compensate for the leader's perception of unfairness at failing to receive the real thing.
As credible a scenario as it seems, Football Daily begs to differ, if only because in recent months the increasingly preposterous football official has maneuvered himself so far up Trump's digestive tract that there's every chance this recent scheme was in fact his original concept.
And even though it's reasonable to suppose it remains past Infantino's restricted imagination to throw the ultimate surprise by presenting the organization's inaugural (and possibly last) ever PPP to the environmental campaigner, Volodymyr Zelenskyy or the person of Atalanta's coaching staff who intervened between Ademola Lookman and the coach to stop an unedifying Bigger Cup bench disagreement, we can at least hope Reece James and his football associates are requested to participate to the capital in full kit to perform a retaliatory takeover of Trump's presentation ceremony.
That gilded unflushable-turd-on-a-plinth, or whichever additional comparably tasteful ornament Infantino chooses to give the American president for his contributions to world harmony and unity, would adequately compensate for the victory honor he notoriously took and pocketed during the Club World Cup final presentation ceremony.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Someone who worked extensively with entertainment icons advised me that the period that they achieve famous is the stage they stay for the rest of their life. I thought: 'That will not indicate positively for me.' I was in the public eye at sixteen and placed facing the press. You develop, you become a parent, but you continue as a soccer player. And then, abruptly, it stops but your entire persona is still associated in the game" – the retired athlete provides thoughtful perspective in this cracking discussion.
