FIFA President Gianni Infantino travelled nearly 60,000 miles and spent more than 100 hours in the air while moving across North America during the 2026 World Cup, the most geographically spread-out edition of football’s biggest tournament.
Infantino travelled extensively across the United States, Canada and Mexico for matches, meetings and official events as the tournament was held across three countries, 16 cities and four time zones. The competition will conclude with Sunday’s final between Argentina and Spain in New Jersey.
An analysis by The Associated Press of flight records of a private jet used by Infantino in recent years, along with photographs and social media posts, found that the FIFA president’s journey during the tournament covered enough distance to circle the Earth nearly two and a half times.
Infantino’s extensive travel was made possible through access to a Gulfstream G650 aircraft from the Qatari government’s fleet. The plane is operated by Qatar Airways’ private charter division, with the airline being one of the sponsors of the World Cup.
According to flight-tracking data from FlightAware, the aircraft began its tournament journey with a June 9 flight from Los Angeles to Mexico City ahead of the opening match. Since then, it averaged more than one flight per day, with several days involving more than three flights.
Apart from attending matches, Infantino’s schedule included visits to New York for a Fox & Friends interview and Miami for a FIFA summit involving representatives from the organization’s 211 member associations. He also travelled to Doha to attend the funeral of Qatar’s former emir before returning to the United States for the World Cup semifinals.
FIFA did not respond to requests for comments regarding Infantino’s travel arrangements.
By the time the final is played, Infantino is expected to have attended 43 World Cup matches. Flight records showed that the jet was scheduled to travel from New Jersey to Miami for the third-place playoff between England and France but the trip was cancelled due to weather-related delays at New York-area airports.
The FIFA president visited all 16 stadiums hosting World Cup matches, with Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium being his most frequent destination, where he watched five games.
Infantino attended two matches on 13 different days, often travelling between venues hundreds of miles apart. The private jet used 21 airports during the tournament, mostly major international airports in host cities but also smaller aviation facilities.
The aircraft crossed international borders 23 times within North America before the semifinals.
The jet accumulated around 115 hours of flight time during the tournament, excluding repositioning flights and a 29-hour trip to Qatar for the funeral. The total flight time was equivalent to nearly five days in the air.
The longest journey, excluding the Qatar trip, was a five-hour and 44-minute flight from Miami to Seattle, where Infantino attended the Belgium-Egypt match on June 15.
The shortest trip was a 28-minute flight from Seattle to Vancouver on July 6. Infantino watched the United States-Belgium match in Seattle before travelling to Vancouver to attend another game the following day.
The aircraft travelled 59,281 miles (95,403 kilometres) during the tournament, according to AP’s analysis. The distance exceeded the combined length of round trips between New York and Singapore, Los Angeles and Doha, and London and Perth.
The busiest travel day came on June 26, when the aircraft covered 5,772 miles (9,289 kilometres). The journey included flights from Miami to Dallas, then Seattle, before returning to Miami the following morning.
Infantino’s travel has also drawn attention because FIFA has pledged to cut carbon emissions linked to the World Cup and related activities by 50 percent by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.
Environmental groups and climate researchers have warned that the expanded 2026 World Cup, involving three countries and extensive air travel for teams, supporters and officials, could become the most carbon-intensive edition of the tournament in history.