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

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 (372,822 miles) 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.

And according to estimates, Infantino's use of the private jet will add to the already significant carbon footprint of the 2026 World Cup. Greenly estimates that his flights will result in a defensible range of 300 to 500 tons of CO2 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 recognizes either the cause or its responsibility to be part of the solution to climate change,” he posted on Instagram. 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 percent 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.