How does Gianni Infantino attend so many 2026 World Cup matches, and which ones will he miss?
FIFA president Gianni Infantino attends a huge share of World Cup matches by flying between host cities on a private jet and aiming for about two games a day. He went to all 64 matches in Qatar 2022, but the 2026 tournament — 104 games across three countries — makes a clean sweep physically impossible, mainly because of simultaneous kickoffs.
- 1Infantino attended all 64 matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when everything was in one small country[1]
- 2For 2026 he aims to attend as many games as possible, reportedly around two a day, hopping between cities by private jet[1]
- 3The 2026 World Cup has 104 matches across the US, Canada and Mexico, with 16 stadiums up to about 2,800 miles apart and four time zones[1]
- 4By the end of the first week he had already racked up roughly 13,000 miles touring host cities[2]
Going to nearly every game of a single-country World Cup is one thing; doing it across a continent is a logistics problem.
How does he get to so many games?
By air, constantly. Infantino moves between host cities on a private jet — reported to be provided by Qatar Airways as part of its FIFA sponsorship — and tries to keep a rhythm of about two matches a day, catching an early kickoff in one city and a later one in another.
Did he really attend every game before?
Yes — at Qatar 2022 he was at all 64 matches, but that tournament was staged in one small country where stadiums sat within an hour of each other. He could watch one game and reach the next by car. 2026 removes that luxury entirely.
Why can't he attend all 104 in 2026?
Distance and simultaneous kickoffs. The 16 stadiums stretch up to about 2,800 miles apart across three countries, and — crucially — the final round of group games is played in simultaneous pairs to stop collusion. When two matches kick off at the same time in different cities, no one can be at both, so attending all 104 is mathematically impossible.
So which matches will he miss?
No specific game has been officially announced as a "skip." The structural answer is the simultaneous fixtures: on each group's final matchday, two games start at once, so he can only ever attend one of each pair. The same applies to any day with more games than his two-a-day pace allows — those are the matches that inevitably go unattended.
Imagine the NFL commissioner trying to be physically present at every game on a Sunday — impossible, because many kick off at the same time in different cities. Infantino faces the same wall: a single person can't be in two stadiums at once. His private-jet sprint is closer to a candidate barnstorming swing states than a fan's matchday, and the simultaneous kickoffs are the hard ceiling he can't beat.
Key Takeaways
- Infantino attends a large share of matches by flying between host cities on a private jet, aiming for about two games a day.
- He can't attend all 104: simultaneous final-group kickoffs in distant cities make a full sweep physically impossible, though no specific skipped match has been announced.