Multiple flights in a single day. Close to 60,000 total miles. Over 100 hours spent in the sky. Those are just some of the staggering travel statistics racked up by FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the 2026 World Cup.
The tournament was the most geographically spread-out edition in World Cup history, spanning three countries, 16 host cities, and four time zones. Infantino was constantly on the move, attending matches, participating in meetings, and making public appearances throughout the competition, which concludes with Sunday’s championship match in New Jersey.
To document his movements, The Associated Press reviewed flight logs for a private business jet that Infantino has used in recent years, combined with photographs taken by AP photographers and images shared on Instagram by both FIFA and Infantino himself. That analysis determined that by the time either Argentina or Spain is crowned champion, Infantino will have logged enough air miles to circle the Earth nearly two and a half times.
The jet making all of this possible is a Gulfstream G650 from the Qatari government’s fleet, operated by the private charter arm of Qatar Airways — itself a World Cup sponsor.
Flight records from tracking site FlightAware show that since a June 9 departure from Los Angeles to Mexico City ahead of the opening match, the aircraft averaged more than one flight per day, with several days seeing three or more flights.
Beyond attending matches, Infantino’s schedule included a stop in New York for a Fox & Friends interview and a trip to Miami for a FIFA summit that drew representatives from all 211 of the organization’s member associations. He also made a transatlantic journey to Doha to attend the funeral of Qatar’s former emir, then returned to the United States in time for the World Cup semifinals.
FIFA did not reply to an emailed request from the AP seeking comment on Infantino’s travel arrangements.
Here is a closer look at the numbers behind the travel of the man overseeing a tournament that featured a record 104 matches across the United States, Canada, and Mexico — the largest geographic footprint in World Cup history.
Infantino attended matches at all 16 World Cup venues before Sunday’s final. He visited Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium most frequently, attending five games there. FlightAware data showed the Gulfstream had been scheduled to fly from New Jersey to Miami for the third-place match between England and France on Saturday, but the flight never departed. Thunderstorms caused widespread delays at New York City-area airports that day, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
On multiple occasions, Infantino attended two matches in a single day, sometimes at stadiums separated by hundreds of miles. The jet frequently used major international airports in the host cities but also landed at smaller general aviation facilities, including Atlanta’s Fulton County Executive Airport and Miami’s Opa Locka Executive Airport.
The Gulfstream made numerous international border crossings within North America throughout the tournament, up through the semifinals.
Excluding repositioning flights and the 29 hours of travel associated with the Qatar funeral, the jet accumulated enough flight time to equal nearly five full days in the air — the equivalent of a commercial aircraft flying the New York-to-Los Angeles route 20 times.
The longest single flight during the tournament, not counting the Qatar trip, was a 344-minute journey from Miami to Seattle on June 15, where Infantino watched the Belgium-Egypt match. That flight duration is equal to three complete World Cup matches from opening kickoff to final whistle.
The shortest trip, excluding repositioning flights, was a 28-minute hop from Seattle to Vancouver on July 6 — roughly the running time of a network TV sitcom like “Friends” with commercials included. Infantino had attended the United States-Belgium match in Seattle that day before heading to Vancouver, where he watched Switzerland take on Colombia the following day.
Excluding the round trip to Qatar for the funeral, the jet covered a distance during the tournament that exceeds the combined mileage of round-trip flights between New York and Singapore, Los Angeles and Doha, and London and Perth, Australia.
The busiest travel day in terms of miles came on June 26. It began with a morning flight from Miami to Dallas, then continued on to Seattle for the Egypt-Iran match. The plane departed Seattle late that night and landed back in Miami the following morning, where Infantino then watched Colombia face Portugal.
All of this travel comes as FIFA has publicly pledged to cut carbon emissions from the World Cup and related activities by 50 percent by 2030, with a commitment to reaching net-zero emissions by 2040. The organization’s sustainability and human rights strategy for the 2026 tournament states a commitment to addressing climate change.
Climate scientists and environmental organizations have argued that the expanded, three-nation tournament was likely to generate more greenhouse gas emissions than any previous World Cup, largely due to the enormous amount of air travel required for teams, fans, and officials alike.
