FIFA President Faces a Barrage of Criticism from Environmentalists Over Flights for the 2026 World Cup

FIFA President Gianni Infantino found himself at the center of a high-profile environmental scandal during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. During the first two weeks of the World Cup, the head of world soccer managed to attend 24 matches, which required him to take 27 flights on a private jet. 

Journalists tracking the movements of a FIFA-linked business jet have calculated that Infantino has already spent more than 66 hours in the air. To cover as many group-stage matches as possible, the FIFA president has repeatedly attended two matches a day in cities located hundreds of kilometers apart. On some days, his schedule required up to three separate flights per day.

The scale of the FIFA president’s travels is striking in its extremes—ranging from transcontinental marathons to ultra-short flights:

• Longest flight: 2,800 miles (4,507 km). On June 13, after watching the match between Australia and Turkey, Gianni Infantino flew from Vancouver, Canada, to Miami, Florida.

• Shortest flight: Recorded on June 22, when a private jet traveled just 92 miles (148 km) from Philadelphia to an airport in New Jersey. Infantino did not fly there for soccer, but for a morning interview at the Fox News studio in New York, after which he immediately flew on to matches in Boston and Toronto.

Such excessive use of private air travel has drawn harsh criticism from international environmental organizations. Environmentalists highlight the enormous carbon footprint and massive CO₂ emissions, which run counter to current global trends in the fight against climate change and FIFA’s own public statements regarding a “green” and environmentally friendly World Cup.

An additional source of debate and criticism within the soccer community is the fact that all these numerous luxury flights are fully covered by FIFA’s commercial sponsorship agreements.

This was reported by BBC Sport.