FIFA President Gianni Infantino managed to watch more than 40 World Cup matches 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 match of the tournament, Business Insider’s analysis found that over the course of the World Cup, he traveled some 70,000 miles. That’s almost three times the circumference of the Earth.

The Guardian first reported that Infantino was using a private jet provided by Qatar Airways, as part of its sponsorship deal as the official airline of the World Cup.

We used photographs, television broadcasts and Instagram posts to track Infantino’s whereabouts during the tournament. These coincided 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 charted the plane’s 50+ flights, from the first match to the final.

You can hover over each marked city on the map to see how many times Infantino went there.

Our map shows all the trips Infantino made to the United States, Canada and Mexico during the tournament, but does not fully show a trip he made to Qatar during the interval between the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Last Monday, Infantino said on Instagram that he had gone to pay his condolences to the Qatari emir, whose father had died. The four-leg trip, which departed from Miami, included refueling stops in Madrid and returned to Dallas, covered about 11,500 miles.

Between two World Cup matches, Infantino’s longest trip was between Vancouver and Miami: a five-hour flight, which was made twice.

Excluding four On repositioning flights, the shortest trip was a 27-minute hop from Seattle to Vancouver on July 6. The two World Cup stadiums are about a three-hour drive from each other.

Infantino typically attended two matches 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.

Its busiest travel day was June 26, when the G650ER traveled 5,500 miles. From Miami to Dallas, where Infantino met with Jordan’s team at their training camp, then to Seattle for the game between Egypt and Iran, and finally a return to Miami for a match the next day.

In total, Infantino appeared to spend more than 140 hours aboard the private jet during the five-and-a-half weeks of the 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 featured on television broadcasts watching matches and photographed alongside attendees ranging from legendary players such as Ronaldo to dignitaries such as the Crown Prince of Norway and Marco Rubio. He appeared at a media event with President Donald Trump on Friday, and the two are expected to sit together at Sunday’s finale.

Under Infantino’s leadership, the 2026 World Cup has been more expensive and arguably more commercialized than ever.

The cost of tickets has been a point of contention among fans, with prices significantly higher than previous World Cups when adjusted for inflation. For the finals, seats with the best view of the field cost $10,990 when they were released in the first general admission sale in April.

high flyers

The Gulfstream G650ER is a premium private jet that costs around $65 million to purchase new. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are among those who have had one.

It has a top speed of 610 miles per hour at its typical cruising altitude of 43,000 feet. Meanwhile, cabin pressure means you don’t sit above 4,850 feet (half that on a commercial airliner), which ameliorates 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 sofa in the back that can be transformed into a double bed.

While Infantino attended at least one game in all 16 host cities, he did not see two of the 48 teams in action: Jordan and Germany. The team 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, an appearance on “Fox & Friends” at his New York studio and a media visit to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Infantino’s trip exemplifies why the rich are willing to shell out millions of dollars to buy a private plane or tens of thousands of dollars an hour to rent 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 to the tarmac, choosing to take off whenever they want rather than aligning with airline schedules.

In fact, this seemed to be helpful for Infantino as he had some difficult times during his odyssey.

On June 22, Infantino first saw France play Iraq in Philadelphia, but the second half was delayed two hours due to a storm. The plane then flew to New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport and landed 1 hour and 23 minutes after Norway vs Senegal began at nearby MetLife Stadium. Television broadcasts showed the FIFA president in the stands with four minutes left in the match.

His ability to move between stadiums so quickly attracted comments from football fans on social media as well. At least two images of Infantino in the stands were edited with the score from a match he did not attend, to joke that he had been in two places at once.