An undeserved award

This is a joke. An insult to nations around the globe, including Canada, and an indelible stain on an event that should encourage world unity.

Yesterday afternoon, United States President Donald Trump was awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize at the World Cup draw ceremony in Washington. Next year’s event, which brings 48 of the planet’s top male soccer teams together in competition to be crowned world champion, is being co-hosted by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, is composed of 211 member nations and serves as soccer’s global governing body. It oversees and promotes the development of soccer at every level, from grassroots initiatives to elite international competitions such as World Cup.

How that has anything to do with diplomacy and world peace is a mystery, as is the reasoning behind giving Trump any kind of “peace prize.” According to FIFA, the prize is meant to “reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world.” But that description does not apply to the actions of the U.S. president.

After all, Trump and his administration are currently embroiled in allegations that the U.S. military, acting on Trump’s orders, has engaged in extra-judicial killings of dozens of individuals who were neither engaged in hostile activities nor convicted of any crime. Even worse, there are accusations of war crimes having been committed with respect to two victims who were killed while adrift in the water following the destruction of their boat in an earlier strike.

The Trump administration is also making preparations for military action against Venezuela and possibly other nations such as Colombia, despite no clear justification for doing so and no authorization from the U.S. Congress. Trump has also frequently mused about invading Greenland and annexing Canada.

There are also Trump’s repeated attempts to cripple Ukraine’s ability to defend itself from Russia’s invasion, combined with his efforts to force Ukraine to surrender large pieces of its sovereign territory to Russia — despite the fact much of that territory has been neither conquered nor occupied by the invader.

Beyond that, there are the violent — and in many cases unlawful — actions of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) teams across America. Individuals have been forcibly removed to other nations without any judicial process, while children have been separated from their parents. A few weeks ago, a young child suffering from cancer was shipped to another nation, and to her likely death.

There is also yesterday’s decision by the Trump administration to expand the number of countries covered by its travel ban, supposedly in order to protect America from “foreign terrorists” and other security threats. Ironically, it appears that some of those banned nations will be participating in the World Cup.

Reprehensible conduct such as that should disqualify Trump from receiving any so-called “peace prize” from any international organization. The fact that FIFA chose to give Trump the award despite his series of decidedly non-peaceful actions actions deserves widespread condemnation — and that is exactly how the world is reacting to Trump being given the award.

According to a report in The Independent, one soccer fan wrote on social media that “This is pathetic.” Another said that “FIFA is so corrupted man, they actually made a ‘peace’ award for Trump because he got upset about not getting the Nobel peace prize … What are we even doing here?” A third described the award as “beyond parody,” while yet another wrote “Can’t wait for a South Park episode about this.”

We agree. FIFA’s decision is beyond parody. In fact, it is beyond comprehension.

The World Cup should be an event that, like the Olympics, brings the world closer through goodwill, sportsmanship and spirited competition. Awarding a “peace prize” to someone so undeserving of the honour is not merely a distraction for FIFA. It’s an embarrassment.