FIFA Gave Trump a 'Peace Prize.' Then his Justice Dept. Dropped a Major Soccer Bribery Case.
The corruption is the point.
By Brian Daitzman
Days after FIFA President Gianni Infantino handed Donald Trump an unprecedented “FIFA Peace Prize” at the World Cup draw in Washington, federal prosecutors in New York asked to dismiss a major soccer bribery case that was once central to the United States’ campaign against FIFA corruption.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn moved on Wednesday, December 10 to dismiss a major soccer bribery case that grew out of the United States’ long-running probe of corruption in world football, days after the head of FIFA awarded Donald J. Trump an inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize” at a World Cup draw in Washington, according to court filings and news reports.
Reuters reported that U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella told the court that dropping the case against former Fox International Channels executive Hernan Lopez and Argentine sports marketing company Full Play Group was “in the interests of justice,” even though a jury convicted them in 2023 and a federal appeals court reinstated those verdicts in July after a trial judge set them aside.
The overlap in timing has drawn scrutiny from watchdog groups and former officials, who say it underscores how the Justice Department and FIFA are handling cases that involve politics, money and public trust ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Public records show that FIFA’s leader honored Trump on a global stage, that Trump’s daughter accepted a seat on a World Cup–funded advisory board, and that prosecutors then asked to unwind a conviction in a case once presented as evidence of a serious crackdown on FIFA-related corruption, even as none of the filings or public statements connect those steps to one another.
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