Astead Herndon

Like for those of us who have followed Infantino as a job, kind of this like soccer bureaucrat, to all of a sudden see him, you know, basically being on first name terms with the US president.

Infantino has been in the Oval Office more than any foreign state leader, for example.

That's extraordinary.

Yeah, I mean, like, if you think of like, at least in public appearances, you know, like where you see those kind of joint Oval Office affairs, like the one that, for example, Mamdani had with Trump in the Oval Office.

There's been like several of those with Trump and Infantino.

So, you know, he has gone above and beyond before for host nations.

But I think what we're seeing now with Trump, I mean, certainly with the Peace Prize, is kind of another level.

So at the FIFA World Cup draw at the start of December, Donald Trump was presented with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.

FIFA has never had a Peace Prize.

Nobody has ever asked FIFA to do a Peace Prize as far as we know.

And the background of this is earlier in autumn 2025, a kind of unofficial campaign

kind of coming out of the White House and outriders of the White House, started to suggest that President Trump should be winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

And actually, the day before the Peace Prize was announced, of course, the day before, Infantino goes out on Instagram and actually says President Trump deserves it.

There's a few theories on this.

The first is just Infantino loves it, right?

He loves being around rich, powerful people, sees himself as this kind of head of society.

state for soccer, if you like, the king of soccer.

The second view is there is a pragmatic need for FIFA to go above and beyond, right?

And maybe they just think this is what we need to do to make sure we get what we need.

And there are things that FIFA need.