Overview
- Reporting this week shows Gianni Infantino has attended roughly ten matches in the first week of the tournament while using a private jet reportedly provided by Qatar Airways.
- Carbon-accounting firm Greenly says one hour in that jet equals an average person's annual footprint and projects Infantino’s tournament travel at about 300 to 500 tonnes of CO2 before non‑CO2 effects.
- Independent analysts warn the 2026 World Cup is unusually polluting because it spans the United States, Canada and Mexico, with the New Weather Institute estimating roughly 9 million tonnes of CO2 for the event and about 7.7 million tonnes from air travel.
- Specific flights have drawn attention for scale: one reported leg, Seattle to Los Angeles, emitted roughly the annual per‑person footprint of a French resident, which critics say highlights the optics of a sponsor‑provided jet.
- The pattern has triggered sustained media and public criticism and could raise reputational and governance questions for FIFA and its commercial partners as the tournament continues.