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FIFA awards Donald Trump its inaugural 'peace prize · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: US President Donald Trump has been awarded the new FIFA
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  Speaker 1: Peace Prize at the World Cup draw. FIFA President at
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  Speaker 1: Gianni Infentino presented him with the honor on stage. Trump
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  Speaker 1: had been expected to receive the award after he openly
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  Speaker 1: campaigned to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Infentino presented Trump
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  Speaker 1: with a medal and a gold trophy with his name
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  Speaker 1: on it. A video played a head of the presentation,
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  Speaker 1: celebrating the president for his role in brokering at Gaza ceasefire.
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  Speaker 1: The prize is being called a departure from the federation's
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  Speaker 1: traditional focus on the sport. Have sports and politics started
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  Speaker 1: to intersect? And is it just starting now? To explore this,
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  Speaker 1: we're joined by Tim Alcolm. He is a professor of
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  Speaker 1: kinesiology at Wilford Laurier University and a fellow at the
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  Speaker 1: Vasili School of International Affairs. Tim, thank you so much
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  Speaker 1: for your time tonight nooting rewatching the awarding of this
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  Speaker 1: trophy and what do you make of how FIFA has
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  Speaker 1: handled Trump in the lead up to the World Cup.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was watching. It was very It wasn't a surprise.
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  Speaker 2: This was about a month ago. The FIFA president, Jenny
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  Speaker 2: Fantino had declared that this there would be this FIFA
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  Speaker 2: Piece award, which is brand new, and the every indication
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  Speaker 2: is that this is something that Jenny Fantino created himself.
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  Speaker 2: No one else at FIFA knew about this, so you know,
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  Speaker 2: in terms of the event, it wasn't a surprise. And
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  Speaker 2: certainly the relationship between the president of FIFA and the
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  Speaker 2: President the United States has become very close over the
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  Speaker 2: past many years.
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  Speaker 1: What does it say to you about FIFA's commitment to
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  Speaker 1: political neutrality. I mean, we do often hear from international
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  Speaker 1: sporting events that they do not, you know, there's no
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  Speaker 1: politics at play, and then there's always you know, some
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  Speaker 1: talk about how that is happening, maybe behind the scenes.
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  Speaker 2: This was very overt, Yeah, and so FIFA has a
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  Speaker 2: very unique relationship when it comes to global politics. They'd
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  Speaker 2: like to talk about the idea that if you keep
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  Speaker 2: politics out of FIFA, then FIFA will have this ability
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  Speaker 2: to make the role the better place. So I call
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  Speaker 2: this sporting exceptionalism, and it's this idea that because it's
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  Speaker 2: just a sport and it can and it should be
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  Speaker 2: politically neutral, it has this ability to basically be a
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  Speaker 2: global diplomat and Gianny Fatino, of course as the head
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  Speaker 2: diplomat within that sort of view of this role of
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  Speaker 2: FIFA in the broader global political system.
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  Speaker 1: But is it just FIFA that you know, is maybe
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  Speaker 1: bringing politics in, As I say, there are other I
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  Speaker 1: mean the Olympics is one that often is there's talk
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  Speaker 1: about politics playing a.
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  Speaker 2: Role, right. Politics has always been part of since the
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  Speaker 2: beginning of international sport, all the way back to the
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  Speaker 2: sort of the modern Olympic Games in eighteen ninety six.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you could you could talk about Americans refusing
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  Speaker 2: to dip the flag to the British King. There's examples
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  Speaker 2: of the Nazi Olympics in ninety thirty six. Musi leading
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  Speaker 2: the World Cups. I mean, we can go through every
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  Speaker 2: single Olympic event, every single World Cup event, because those
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  Speaker 2: are the two biggest global sporting events, and we could
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  Speaker 2: talk about the pretty significant politics that are behind it.
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  Speaker 2: I think what's a little bit more unique now is
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  Speaker 2: how more direct I think organizations like FIFA and IOC
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  Speaker 2: are becoming in the geopolitical conversations while at the same
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  Speaker 2: time claiming sort of a political status.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean when you say direct, I mean, as
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  Speaker 1: I said, this was very overt This was very you know,
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  Speaker 1: on display for all. What do you think was behind
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  Speaker 1: FIFA's efforts to I'm going to say, perhaps flatter Trump.
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  Speaker 1: I think that a lot of people who are watching
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  Speaker 1: would have described it that way, presenting him with this
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  Speaker 1: unique I mean, it's just invented this year, this peace Prize.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're going to create a criteria or process later.
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  Speaker 2: They just wanted to make sure they have this award
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  Speaker 2: ready to go. I think there's one way you could
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  Speaker 2: look at is this is a transactional and this is
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  Speaker 2: FIFA and President of Fantino making sure they're keeping the
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  Speaker 2: US administration happy. I think there's something a little bit broader.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's more of this idea, of this view
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  Speaker 2: that FIFA has of their role in global politics. This
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  Speaker 2: is President of Fentino has made very struck created very
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  Speaker 2: strong alliances with vladimra Putin when they host him twenty eighteen.
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  Speaker 2: He's a significant defender of the Katari royal family in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, and he seems to be very drawn
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  Speaker 2: to President Trump and they've got offices in Trump Towers.
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  Speaker 2: He's been almost at almost every significant event that President
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  Speaker 2: Trump has been at. He's even missed FIFA Congress events
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  Speaker 2: to be with President Trump in the Middle East. So
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  Speaker 2: I think it's more than just transactional, and it's actually
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  Speaker 2: again it's this idea of President of Fentino seeing himself
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  Speaker 2: as a global ambassador and President Trump is the sort
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  Speaker 2: of the head of state that he's most aligned with,
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  Speaker 2: and obviously with the World Cup being in supposedly all
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  Speaker 2: three countries, but certainly with a us tinge to the
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  Speaker 2: proceedings and sort of way this is being shaped.
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  Speaker 1: If you're part of the organization that is putting on
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  Speaker 1: an event like FIFA, an international sporting event, what are
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  Speaker 1: the what are the pros and what are the cons
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  Speaker 1: of aligning yourself politically.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you always end up, of course with in terms
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  Speaker 2: of who is feeling as if they're part of this
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  Speaker 2: and who are sort of left on the outside. There's
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  Speaker 2: been certainly a lot of tension between FIFA and Europe
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  Speaker 2: for many years. I think it's gonna be very interesting
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  Speaker 2: to see how Canadians feel about FIFA by the time
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  Speaker 2: the summer is over. I mean, this was this was
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  Speaker 2: supposed to be such a significant event for us, you know.
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  Speaker 2: I think today we know there's a lot of talk
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  Speaker 2: about what a big deal this is to Canada, but
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  Speaker 2: you know, when we got this, you know this this
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  Speaker 2: global event. But I think by the end of the
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  Speaker 2: summer there might be a degree of disappointment that I'm
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  Speaker 2: not sure how much this is going to feel like
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  Speaker 2: it was our event relative to being an example of
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  Speaker 2: sort of the American administration's America First Agenda.
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  Speaker 1: Tim Malcolm, professor of kinesiology at Lauria University and a
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  Speaker 1: fellow at the Bacilli School of International Affairs, thank you
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  Speaker 1: so much.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you