FIFA's Ethics Committee have rejected the Norwegian Football Federation's request to be kept informed of developments in the complaint filed against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over the awarding of the "FIFA Peace Prize" to US president Donald Trump.
According to British newspaperThe Times, Rwanda's Martin Ngoga, chairman of the investigatory chamber of FIFA's Ethics Committee, turned down the Norwegian Federation's request to view updates on the file.
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Ngoga spelled it out in his written response. "Only the persons who are themselves the subject of proceedings are considered parties to those proceedings," he said, adding: "And due to the confidential nature of ethics proceedings, we are not in a position to provide updates on whether any proceedings exist in the first place, or on the status of any potential proceedings".
The Norwegian Federation had sent a letter to the Ethics Committee in late May or early June 2026, demanding a public handling of the file on the basis of a mandate from its general congress.
Federation president Lise Klaveness said at the time that the demand concerned "rule of law safeguards", stressing that the committee must show transparency even if it decided not to consider the complaint.
Rights complaint
The original complaint dates back to 8 December 2025, when British human rights organisation "FairSquare" submitted it to the investigatory chamber. That came just three days after Infantino handed the prize to Trump during the World Cup draw in Washington.
FairSquare accused Infantino of breaching the duty of political neutrality set out in FIFA's statutes and the Code of Ethics, specifically Article 15. The complaint also alleged procedural violations relating to the creation of the prize, and awarding it without a clear presentation to the FIFA Council.
FIFA acknowledged receipt of the complaint on 12 December, without disclosing whether any investigation had begun or about its stages.
Norway became the first national federation to provide formal written support for the complaint in June 2026. Around 50 members of the European Parliament later called on FIFA to deal with the file.
By August, the Norwegian Federation had announced plans to widen its ethics push to cover other files, among them the case of the lifting of the suspension of US forward Folarin Balogun during the World Cup.
FIFA rarely announce the existence of ethics investigations or their stages before a final decision is issued. As of the preparation of this report, FIFA have not confirmed the opening of a formal investigation into the complaint, nor its closure.
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