November 14 – At COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has once again pledged that his organisation will help combat climate change. His own incessant use of private jets contradicts those claims.
On Instagram, the football supremo wrote: “As an international organisation, FIFA takes its responsibility to protect the environment and climate seriously. We have developed and implemented programmes to support and contribute to climate action through investments into different internationally certified projects of the highest quality.”
“I was further pleased to conclude that everyone present has a common objective: our children and their collective future. FIFA will continue playing its part in the important global issue of climate change.”
It’s not the first time that Infantino has attended the UN’s main climate conference. Last year, the football boss flew in a private jet to COP28 in the United Arab Emirates where he said that FIFA cares about the climate and that “climate change is very high on our agenda as well.”
Flight data suggested it wasn’t high on Infantino’s agenda. He jetted off to the U-17 World Cup final in Indonesia before stopping over in Guam and Hawaii on the way to Miami, where FIFA has a major hub. Earlier this week, he left Azerbaijan for Georgia where he met the FA president and head of state.
On the sidelines of the climate conference in Azerbaijan, FIFA also renewed its memorandum of understanding with the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).
Infantino wrote on Instagram that “FIFA is supporting the Oceania FIFA Member Associations in climate-resilient football development,” but last year, during the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand the FIFA president drew intense criticism for crisscrossing the region in a private jet, clocking up more than 40,000 kilometres in a summer that he flew more than 120,000 kilometres.
The FIFA boss tends to fly on a Gulfstream G650ER of the Qatar Executive fleet, but FIFA has repeatedly failed to disclose the details of Infantino’s use of private jets.
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