Gianni Infantino is enjoying the 2026 World Cup from the best seats in the house — multiple a day, reached by private jet.
The FIFA president has flown to as many as two matches daily on a jet rented from Qatar, accepted police convoys across host cities, and clocked up enough air miles since June 11th to circle the globe.
His governing body is also renting office space inside Donald Trump’s Manhattan skyscraper, deepening a relationship that has drawn heavy scrutiny.
For supporters, this tournament has meant eye-watering prices, with the average cheapest resale ticket sitting at over $1800. For the man in charge, cost appears to be no object at all.
Gianni Infantino spares no expense as fans count the cost
According to Telegraph Sport, Infantino has flown to up to two games a day on a private jet rented from Qatar since the tournament began, with police convoys escorting him through several cities along the way.
His governing body has also planted itself inside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, renting space in the president’s 58-story Manhattan skyscraper.
Conservative estimates put the bill at around $40,000 a month, though insiders told the paper the office sat largely unused until the World Cup arrived. FIFA says it pays market rate and uses the office regularly.
The deal deepens an already close bond between Infantino and Trump — the same FIFA president who handed the American an inaugural Peace Prize last December.
The spending is most visible in Miami. FIFA flew delegates from all 211 member nations to the $1,000-a-night Ritz-Carlton on South Beach for two days of meetings.
They then put up thousands more connected to the World Cup — retired icons like Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos among them, flown in on all-expenses-paid trips — in five-star hotels along the same beaches.
Senior figures in the game claim FIFA could spend more than $200 million on hotel rooms alone this year, a figure the organization strongly disputes while declining to reveal the true total.
This, all while fans dig into their savings, sacrifice mortgage deposits, and face exorbitant prices for basic commoditIes like food and water.
FIFA defends its spending as critics round on the World Cup
FIFA rejects any suggestion of excess.
It says only a fraction of its money goes on hotels and offices, and that it will reinvest at least $11.67 billion of roughly $13 billion in revenue back into the global game — a 20% rise on the previous cycle. Around $2.7 billion of that goes directly to its 211 federations and six confederations.
That funding helps explain why Infantino is expected to cruise to re-election next year. It has not stopped the grumbling from within, though, with an expanded 48-team format and the tournament’s costs drawing open criticism.
Balogun got sent off for this tackle, Messi did not… Is it one rule for Messi and another for everyone else? 🙄
Paraguay coach Gustavo Alfaro did not hold back. He said: “The World Cups are blown out of proportion. The costs, everything else. The essence of football is lost. And football can’t be a business, it has to be football.”
FIFA’s landlords, at least, are delighted. When the governing body moved into Trump Tower last year, Eric Trump told the room the building loved having them. For a tournament FIFA insists is about uniting the world, the address says plenty about who is enjoying it most.
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