Gianni Infantino has made himself highly visible at the 2026 World Cup.
The FIFA president has appeared at match after match across the United States, Canada and Mexico, often covering huge distances in a short space of time. That schedule has now brought a different kind of attention.
His use of a private jet during the opening stages of the tournament has drawn scrutiny, with the emissions from those flights sitting uneasily beside FIFA’s public climate commitments.
A demanding World Cup schedule
According to BBC Sport and BBC Verify, Infantino attended 24 matches in just over two weeks after the tournament began on June 11.
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The World Cup is being staged across 16 host cities in three countries, making travel a central part of the tournament. For Infantino, that has often meant moving between cities hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of miles apart.
BBC Verify and BBC Sport tracked a Gulfstream G650ER jet which they said matched published photographs of Infantino at stadiums. The aircraft made 27 flights during the period they examined.
By June 27, the jet had travelled at least 31,144 miles, or 50,122 kilometres, and spent more than 66 hours in the air.
Using UK government greenhouse gas conversion figures, the BBC estimated that the travel produced 516 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent. That is roughly the average yearly emissions of 78 people worldwide, based on EU data cited in the report.
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Long flights between matches
Some of the journeys underline the scale of Infantino’s schedule.
On June 13, the jet flew around 2,800 miles from Vancouver to Miami after Infantino had watched Australia play Turkey.
Two days later, he is reported to have covered more than 2,700 miles from Miami to Seattle for Belgium against Egypt, before flying about 960 miles south to Los Angeles for Iran against New Zealand.
On June 26, the aircraft flew from Miami to Dallas, continued to Seattle for Egypt against Iran, and then returned to Miami the following morning.
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The pattern reflects the unusual geography of this World Cup. Unlike Qatar in 2022, where stadiums were close together and Infantino was able to attend all 64 matches, the 2026 tournament is spread across a continent.
Climate promises face scrutiny
FIFA has promised to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2040.
Its sustainability strategy for the 2026 World Cup includes regional team hosting, promotion of electric cars and public transport, water conservation and the use of existing stadiums.
Infantino also wrote in FIFA’s sustainability and human rights strategy: “Whether we speak about climate, human rights, diseases or disabilities, we are committed to play our part.”
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That message is now being tested by the president’s own travel.
Freddie Daley, a researcher at Sussex University, described the situation as “symptomatic of Fifa’s failings on the environment and sustainability.”
He added: “The fact that Infantino’s choosing to use a private jet is just completely at odds with the level of leadership that we need to see at the top of Fifa on environmental issues.”
Denise Auclair, a sustainable travel expert, also pointed to the emissions gap between private and public transport. She said private planes are “five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes and 50 times more than trains.”
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FIFA defends travel choices
FIFA has defended the president’s travel schedule.
A FIFA representative told BBC Sport that Infantino “routinely travels, together with relevant officials, on business and tournament-related matters and strives to visit member associations of Fifa whenever he can.”
The representative added: “Sometimes travel is organised on commercial [including low-cost] airlines and sometimes it is on private charter, depending on which is more efficient and cost-effective under the circumstances.”
The issue is not limited to one man’s movements. The 2026 World Cup was already expected to carry a large environmental cost because of its size, format and geography.
A 2025 report from Scientists for Global Responsibility estimated that the tournament’s overall footprint could reach nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent, which would make it far larger than recent World Cups.
FIFA has faced questions on this issue before. In 2023, a Swiss regulator ruled that the organisation had made false statements when describing the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as carbon-neutral.
For FIFA, the problem is therefore bigger than one jet. It is about whether the world’s largest football tournament can credibly present itself as sustainable while asking teams, officials and supporters to move across such vast distances.
Infantino’s travel has turned that contradiction into a visible story.
