The Gaza Strip’s war-torn conditions were on full display in the remarks at President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace inaugural meeting in Washington, even as FIFA used the event to highlight a new soccer facility instead of focusing solely on rebuilding everyday infrastructure. The Board’s attendees heard that Gaza’s neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble and that the reconstruction effort faces serious questions, including how to restore basic water and sewage facilities, roads, electrical grids and the infrastructure needed for food production. In that setting, FIFA President Gianni Infantino offered a message that linked the promise of a stadium to hope and community rebuilding.
Infantino told the audience that “We also have to rebuild and build people, emotion, hope and trust. And this is what football, my sport, is about.” He framed FIFA’s involvement as complementary to traditional relief and reconstruction, saying “We don’t have to just rebuild houses or schools or hospitals or roads,” according to remarks delivered at the meeting.
FIFA’s pledge, Infantino said, called for $50 million for a new national soccer stadium for Gaza, with FIFA saying it would be able to seat between 20,000 and 25,000 spectators. He also said FIFA would build a $15 million FIFA academy and would spend additional money on smaller soccer fields, including what FIFA described as “arena mini pitches,” along with full-sized fields.
In addition to the stadium and academy, Infantino said FIFA would allocate $2.5 million for 50 “arena mini pitches,” or soccer fields, and provide for five full-sized fields costing $1 million each, as described during the Board of Peace meeting. The proposal also leaned on FIFA’s broader presence in the sport’s development, with a video shown at the event describing plans for Gaza soccer leagues at youth, amateur and regional levels and calling for what it described as a “complete football ecosystem designed to support communities and future generations.”
The remarks came as the meeting also included government pledges aimed at Gaza relief and stabilization. The AP reported that nine governments pledged $7 billion toward a Gaza relief package during the inaugural meeting, while five others said they would deploy troops as part of an international stabilization force. The Board of Peace, according to the AP report, was launched as part of a larger White House-brokered ceasefire effort to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Trump used the event to address the composition of the Board, and he repeatedly singled out Infantino during his remarks, the AP reported. Trump remarked that “Virtually everyone is the head of a country,” and he added that Infantino is “head of soccer, so that’s not so bad.” He also told Infantino, “I like your job the best, I think,” according to the AP account of remarks made at the meeting.
The AP described the meeting’s atmosphere as part political theater and part symbolic diplomacy. Attendees were given red “Make American Great Again”-style hats marked “USA” in white letters and with “45-47,” referencing Trump’s two presidential terms, and Infantino wore one briefly, the AP said. Trump’s praise of Infantino, the AP reported, also included references to FIFA having awarded Trump a new “FIFA peace prize” last year, after Trump had lobbied for a Nobel Peace Prize that he said he was denied.
In the AP account, Infantino was also depicted as a familiar figure around White House events ahead of this year’s World Cup, which is jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. Infantino had been shown as attending events connected to the Board’s launch, including a formal launch in Davos, Switzerland, the AP reported, while Trump was also traveling.
For Infantino, the stadium pledge was pitched not as a replacement for urgent humanitarian needs but as a public-facing symbol designed to encourage rebuilding and cohesion. The AP report described a video shown at the meeting with messaging about “A simple ball” and “A shared field,” and it linked FIFA and the Board of Peace to an effort to “turn football into a bridge toward peace, dignity and hope.”