FIFA President Gianni Infantino became the focus of attention when appearing on live television of two matches taking place at the same time at the 2026 World Cup on the morning of June 26 (Vietnam time).
In the last match of Group E, many viewers were surprised to see Mr. Infantino in the stands of the Curacao vs. Ivory Coast match at Lincoln Financial Stadium (Philadelfia), and also appearing in the Ecuador vs. Germany match at MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford). These two locations are about 130 km apart in bird's flight distance.
The FIFA President's appearance at two matches that took place almost simultaneously quickly attracted attention on social networks. Many fans humorously compared Mr. Infantino to a "divorce". However, according to international media, this is the result of a dense schedule of travel by private plane throughout the World Cup.
Mr. Infantino uses aircraft arranged by Qatar Airways to continuously travel between the host cities. Thanks to that, the FIFA President can watch many matches in the same day.
Right from the opening match, Mr. Infantino attended the match between Mexico and South Africa at the Azteca stadium before continuing to Guadalajara to watch the match between South Korea and the Czech Republic. In the following days, the head of FIFA continued to appear at many different locations, including the match between Switzerland and Qatar before moving to Canada to watch the match between Australia and Turkey.
The FIFA President is expected to maintain a schedule of watching two matches per day for most of the 2026 World Cup if conditions permit. During his travel, he was also supported by local police forces to ensure security and traffic coordination.
