Infantino ignores the green agenda with his private jet

FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino will surely be remembered for many things during his presidency (no matter how long will it last). From organizing first World Cup in November, to organizing FIFA Club’s World Cup in a tournament format, from giving Donald Trump a Piece Prize medal, to requesting a top security level escort while in Canada, and the list goes on and on. But the main man of the world’s football association won’t stop. The latest idea he has already put in motion is to watch almost all World Cup matches. The idea itself is a good one, as it looks nice when the FIFA president is overseeing the tournament for which he is responsible for, but this is not 2022. Back in Qatar, his longest distance between stadiums was only 46 miles (74km).

But to watch almost all matches at the World Cup organized by the USA, Mexico and Canada, one needs to cross many many miles. The current World Cup finals tournament spans four time zones and three countries, with the 16 stadiums up to 2,800 miles apart! Not to mention he needs to see much more games, as one his genius ideas was to increase the Cup format to 48 national teams. But Infantino is not giving up, and was given a private jet to manage as much games as possible. Qatar Airways is the official sponsor of the tournament and they gladly provided one plane to Infantino, giving him an opportunity to attend two games each day. Needles to say, environmentalist are not happy.

Are you the Pope or FIFA president?

As a result of the huge distances, this World Cup has already been explained as “the most polluting event ever”, estimating that it will generate about nine million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Air travel is responsible for about 7.7 million tons of that carbon estimate, more than four times that of the average for World Cups held from 2010 to 2022. And Greenly, a global carbon accounting platform for organizations and businesses also calculated Infantino’s ‘contribution’ to world’s pollution. One hour of flight time in Gianni Infantino's private jet is equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of an average human being.

"Between 300 and 500 tons of CO2 emitted over the entire tournament. If this travel pattern continues, it could rise to 900 tons when including the non-CO2 effects of aviation, equivalent to the annual footprint of 35 to 55 French people, or the emissions generated by 150 to 250 international fans making a round trip to attend the competition" revealed Greenly.

WORLD CUP - GROUP STAGE (ROUND 2)

Group C

Saturday 20.06.

01.00: (4.70) Scotland (3.50) Morocco (1.80)

03.30: (1.12) Brazil (10.0) Haiti (16.0)

Group D

Friday 19.06.

22.00: (1.65) USA (3.85) Australia (5.50)

Saturday 20.06.

06.00: (2.10) Turkey (3.35) Paraguay (3.60)

Group E

Saturday 20.06.

23.00: (1.58) Germany (4.00) Ivory Coast (5.90)