Two Matches a Day, in a Gifted Jet

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is being provided with a private jet for the entire tournament by state owned Qatar Airways, a sponsor estimated to be worth 487.5 million dollars, so he can attend two matches a day, and in the end hands the trophy that belongs to the players to the president.

Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, is traveling through his World Cup in a private jet provided by state owned Qatar Airways for the duration of the tournament. It is a benefit granted under a sponsorship agreement that sports consultancy GlobalData Sport estimates to be worth 487.5 million dollars, and with its help the Swiss executive intends to reach two matches a day. For Qatar’s opening match he was in San Francisco, attending the 1 to 1 draw involving his own Switzerland, then flew nearly one thousand six hundred kilometers to Vancouver to watch Australia play Turkey.

Infantino feels at home on the international stage, and that comes with the office, because FIFA counts two hundred eleven member states, eighteen more than the United Nations. Yet in one respect he is unique, in the dedication with which he courts presidents and princes, and heads of government as well. Trump calls him a great friend, and during Trump’s second term the Swiss official has been a more frequent visitor to the White House than any dignitary in the world, perhaps with the exception of Dana White, the man of cage fighting.

He did not award Qatar the 2022 tournament, but few have done more to justify the country afterward, and the same applies to Saudi Arabia, which will host the 2034 World Cup. That it is now Qatar’s state airline providing him with the jet follows a logic that hardly needs explanation. This is the most commercialized World Cup in history, the first to span an entire half of the globe, across Canada, the United States, and Mexico, with expected revenues of thirteen billion dollars, more than double the previous tournament. One third of that comes from sponsorship, and FIFA protects its financial backers with devotion, temporarily renaming stadiums whose naming rights had already been sold and covering even the briefest visible trace of competing brands. Among its top partners are Aramco and Adidas, ADI Predictstreet, Coca Cola, Hyundai with KIA, Lenovo, and Visa, but not least Qatar Airways.

Infantino wants to leave behind a legacy that can stand beside those of João Havelange and Jules Rimet, the great administrators of FIFA’s one hundred twenty two year history. To do so, he is also reaching into club soccer. The 2025 Club World Cup, won by Chelsea, was at the same time a dress rehearsal and a billion dollar bet to take the crown of the most important club competition away from UEFA and its Champions League.

On July 19, when the trophy is presented at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Trump is expected to play a major role, and FIFA appears comfortable with him being the one who places it into the hands of the winning captain. It was already like that at the Club World Cup final, when the president stood beside Infantino, helped carry the trophy to Reece James, and remained at his side as he lifted it. They had told him, James recalled, that the president would hand over the trophy and then step away. That was what he had expected as well, but then the man apparently wanted to stay. This time too, Trump is expected to decide for himself whether he remains standing while the world champions raise the trophy. He was absent for the American team’s 4 to 1 victory over Paraguay on Friday in Los Angeles, but he says he will appear during the tournament, although when has not been said.

That is how the picture comes together. An official who courts the powerful and allows himself to be courted by them flies across the tournament in one man’s jet and hands another man the trophy that belongs to the players. FIFA, which covers even the smallest competing logo on the field, accepts the largest gift from a state without hesitation and calls it a partnership. It is a gift only in name, because no one gives away something worth 487.5 million dollars, and whoever provides a federation with a jet buys the hour in which its president stands beside the president. At the end of a game loved by millions because it is the most honest in the world, one man remains who does not leave the field, and another who thanks him for it. The trophy, however, is lifted, as always, by those who played, and for one moment the game belongs to them again.