The Gaza Strip lies shattered. Entire neighborhoods have been flattened, and the most basic systems that sustain daily life, including water and sewage networks, roads, power grids and food production, are either crippled or gone. Aid groups warn that without urgent rebuilding, the risk of hunger and disease will deepen.
Yet amid the wreckage came an unexpected promise: a new national football stadium. The pledge, attributed to the sport’s global governing body, stood in stark contrast to the scale of destruction and the daunting task of restoring essential services.
The announcement surfaced during the inaugural meeting of President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday. The event unfolded with a heavy dose of political pageantry. Nine governments committed a combined $7 billion toward a Gaza relief package, while five others signaled their readiness to send troops as part of a proposed international stabilization force.
"We don’t have to just rebuild houses or schools or hospitals or roads,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said. "We also have to rebuild and build people, emotion, hope and trust. And this is what football, my sport, is about.”
FIFA pledged $50 million for a new stadium holding between 20,000 and 25,000 spectators and said it would build a $15 million FIFA academy. The organization also promised to spend an additional $2.5 million for 50 "mini pitches,” or football fields, and five full-sized fields costing $1 million each.
Gaza does not have a national football team. A unified Palestinian squad represents Gaza and the West Bank and has been recognized by FIFA since 1998 but has never qualified for the World Cup.
"Football, or football as it is called here, is the world’s universal language,” Infantino said. "It’s about hope. It’s about joy. It’s about happiness. It’s about coming together. It’s about uniting the world.”
He showed a video that proclaimed, "A simple ball. A shared field. A reason to believe again,” while noting that FIFA and the Board of Peace were joining forces to "turn football into a bridge toward peace, dignity and hope.”
The video mentioned FIFA creating Gaza football leagues at youth, amateur and regional levels and promised a "complete football ecosystem designed to support communities and future generations.”
Infantino has become a regular presence at the White House ahead of this year’s World Cup, jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. He also frequently appears at Trump events while the president is traveling. He showed up in Davos, Switzerland, last month when the Board of Peace, part of a larger White House-brokered ceasefire aimed at ending the fighting in Gaza, was formally launched.
Trump repeatedly singled out Infantino during his remarks Thursday at the Board of Peace event while attempting to gloss over the fact that many top U.S. allies, including Britain and Canada, have not joined.
"Virtually everyone is the head of a country,” Trump said of the board’s members, while noting that Infantino is "head of football, so that’s not so bad.”
"I like your job the best, I think,” Trump said.
Thursday’s attendees were given red hats styled after Trump’s "Make America Great Again” caps, with "USA” in white letters and "45-47” signifying Trump’s two presidential terms. Infantino briefly wore one, as did others in attendance.
The president gave shoutouts to Infantino during several stories on divergent topics, including when Trump suggested he had been a more successful real estate developer than his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and as he recounted how an escalator stopped while he was on it during last fall’s U.N. General Assembly meeting, an incident Trump suggested should have triggered arrests but did not.
Trump even explained to Infantino that B-2 bombers carry "very big bombs.”
But the president’s most effusive praise for Infantino was related to his organization awarding Trump a new FIFA peace prize last year, after the president lobbied for a Nobel Peace Prize but was not selected by the Norwegian committee that awards it.
"I think they saw that I got screwed by Norway,” Trump said.