Fifa draws criticism as Infantino clocks up air miles at World Cup

Fifa defends Gianni Infantino’s travel by stressing that its executives choose between commercial and private flights ‘based on what is most efficient and cost-effective’. (EPA Images pic)

LAUSANNE: Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been a busy man at this World Cup but his unquenchable thirst to pack in as many matches as possible is causing unrest among environmentalists who are questioning his indifference to climate change.

Mexico City, Guadalajara, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, Kansas City, Houston: the Italo-Swiss boss has already powered up his private jet to appear in the stands 10 times in seven days.

His insatiable use of a Qatar Airways private jet is nothing new: in September 2024, the investigative outlet Josimar revealed that he had used the plane to clock up 600,000 kilometers over the previous three years.

But the expanded 2026 World Cup, staged for the first time with 48 teams across the United States, Canada, and Mexico — meaning a jump from 64 to 104 matches — has magnified the impact of Infantino’s flying habit.

“Just one hour in this plane emits roughly what an average human being emits in an entire year,” Greenly, a French company specialising in carbon footprint assessments, said this week.

‘Sustainability paradox’

If Infantino strings together two cities a day until the end of the round of 16, then attends the last eight matches, Greenly estimates he will rack up “a defensible range of 300 to 500 tonnes of CO2 for his plane alone” over the course of the tournament.

That is the equivalent, they say, of “the annual footprint of around 35 to 55 French people”.

Fifa defends the president’s travel by stressing that its executives choose between commercial and private flights “based on what is most efficient and cost-effective” and that in all cases the organisation covers travel costs.

David Gogishvili, a geographer at the University of Lausanne, told AFP that Fifa had created a “sustainability paradox”.

“By reusing existing but geographically dispersed NFL stadiums across a continent, Fifa has created a model that is structurally dependent on high-emission air travel,” he said.

“When leadership sets a precedent by hopping between matches via private jet, it perfectly reflects the broader systemic issue/approach.”

The way Fifa has organised this World Cup “normalises hyper-mobility while simultaneously shifting transport costs and carbon burdens onto the host regions and fans.”

John Hocevar, who is Oceans Campaign Director of Greenpeace USA, is equally curt about Infantino’s stadium-hopping.

“Having executives take daily flights on highly polluting private jets doesn’t exactly send the message that Fifa recognises either the cause or its responsibility to be part of the solution to climate change,” he posted on Instagram.

Qatar jets overload

Far from being a one-off, this geographical sprawl will be repeated next year at the Women’s World Cup in Brazil, chosen by Fifa in 2024 over a bid that would have been 100% accessible by train between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

It will take an even more extreme turn with the centenary of the men’s World Cup in 2030, hosted by Morocco, Portugal, and Spain with three matches in South America — and with the still unresolved prospect of an expansion to 64 teams.

Given that the 2026 tournament has attracted celebrities and wealthy spectators, the use of private jets at a World Cup is not just limited to Fifa leadership, further increasing the event’s overall footprint.

The 2022 World Cup drew 1,846 private jets to Qatar, the British journal Nature noted. That is more than the Super Bowl, the Cannes Film Festival, the World Economic Forum in Davos and COP28 combined.

“All of the emissions associated with a World Cup are… luxury rather than subsistence emissions, as the tournament doesn’t need to happen at all,” American academic Tim Walters said last year during a Play the Game debate.

“In this context, the lavish activity of the ultra-wealthy is particularly obscene and dispiriting.”