FIFA President Gianni Infantino managed to catch more than 40 World Cup games in 39 days thanks to the elite’s favorite time-saving tool: a private jet.
Ahead of Sunday’s final, which will be Infantino’s 44th game of the tournament, Business Insider’s analysis found that throughout the World Cup, he traveled some 70,000 miles. That’s almost three times the Earth’s circumference.
The Guardian first reported that Infantino was using a private jet provided by Qatar Airways, as part of its sponsorship deal as the World Cup‘s official airline partner.
We used photographs, TV broadcasts, and Instagram posts to track Infantino’s whereabouts through the tournament. These matched up with the movements of a Gulfstream G650ER owned by Qatar Executive, the airline’s private-jet division.
FIFA and Qatar Airways did not respond to requests for comment.
Using data from Flightradar24, we mapped out the airplane’s more than 50 flights, from the first game through to the final.
You can hover over each city marked on the map to see how many times Infantino went there.
Our map shows all the trips Infantino has made in the US, Canada, and Mexico during the tournament, but doesn’t fully show a trip he took to Qatar during the gap between the quarterfinals and semifinals.
Last Monday, Infantino said on Instagram that he went to offer his condolences to the Qatari Emir, whose father had died. The four-leg trip — departing from Miami, including refueling stops in Madrid, and returning to Dallas — covered some 11,500 miles.
Between two World Cup games, Infantino’s longest journey was between Vancouver and Miami — a five-hour flight, which occurred twice.
Excluding four repositioning flights, the shortest journey was a 27-minute hop from Seattle to Vancouver on July 6. The two World Cup stadia are about a three-hour drive apart.
Infantino typically attended two games a day during the group stage, the first part of the World Cup that lasted until June 27, in which all 48 teams competed in mini-leagues.
His highest-traveled day was June 26, when the G650ER covered 5,500 miles. From Miami to Dallas, where Infantino met the Jordan team at their training camp, then onto Seattle for Egypt vs. Iran, and finally a red-eye back to Miami for a game the following day.
In all, Infantino appeared to spend more than 140 hours on board the private jet across the five-and-a-half-week tournament.
Infantino’s frequent appearances throughout the tournament have helped make him a celebrity in his own right, with a higher profile than his predecessors.
He was often shown on TV broadcasts watching games and photographed alongside attendees ranging from legendary players like Ronaldo to such dignitaries as the Crown Prince of Norway and Marco Rubio. On Friday, he appeared at a media event with President Donald Trump, and the two are expected to sit together at Sunday’s final.
Under Infantino’s leadership, the 2026 World Cup has been more expensive, and arguably more commercialized, than ever before.
The cost of tickets has been a major bone of contention among fans, with prices significantly higher than in previous World Cups when adjusted for inflation. For the final, seats with the best view of the pitch cost $10,990 when released in the first general-admission sale in April.
High-fliers
The Gulfstream G650ER is a premium private jet that costs about $65 million to buy new. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are among those who have owned one.
It has a top speed of 610 miles per hour at its typical cruising altitude of 43,000 feet. Meanwhile, the cabin pressure means it feels no higher than 4,850 feet — half as much as on a commercial airliner — ameliorating the effects of jet lag and dehydration.
Online charter listings for the Qatar Executive version used by Infantino show it can carry 13 passengers and has a couch in the rear that can transform into a double bed.
While Infantino attended at least one game in all 16 host cities, he didn’t see two of the 48 teams in action: Jordan and Germany. The team that he saw play the most games was England, with five.
He also made time for other stops during the tournament: a FIFA summit in Miami, appearing on “Fox & Friends” at its New York studio, and a media visit to New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
Infantino’s voyage exemplifies why the wealthy are keen to shell out millions of dollars to buy a private jet or tens of thousands of dollars an hour to charter one. In addition to the added security and luxurious cabin, flying private can save valuable time.
Passengers can bypass the usual security lines and be driven onto the tarmac, choosing to take off whenever they please rather than aligning with airline schedules.
Indeed, this appeared to come in handy for Infantino, as he had some tight timings during his odyssey.
On June 22, Infantino first watched France play Iraq in Philadelphia, but the second half was delayed by two hours due to a thunderstorm. The jet then flew to New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport and touched down 1 hour and 23 minutes after Norway vs Senegal kicked off at the nearby MetLife Stadium. TV broadcasts showed the FIFA president in the stands with four minutes remaining in the game.
His ability to move between stadia so quickly attracted commentary from soccer fans on social media, too. At least two images of Infantino in the stands were edited with the scorebug of a game he didn’t attend, to joke that he had been in two places at once.
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The post Mapped: How FIFA’s president criss-crossed North America on a private jet to watch over 40 World Cup games in 39 days appeared first on Business Insider.
