A Private Jet, a Football Tournament, and 7.8 Million Tonnes of Carbon

The tournament expands to 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. More than five million tickets have already sold, with around six million expected. Greenly’s verdict is that scale, not stadium construction, drives the climate cost.

Where do the emissions actually come from?

The headline finding overturns a common assumption. Stadiums barely register. Because 2026 reuses existing venues rather than building from scratch, infrastructure accounts for just 3.1% of the total. Host cities are deploying established grounds such as NFL arenas in the United States, the Azteca in Mexico City, and BMO Field in Toronto. Qatar, which built seven new stadiums, saw infrastructure reach nearly a quarter of its footprint.

Spectator travel dominates instead, at an estimated 87.8% of the total. Fans are crossing a continent to reach a three-country tournament, and average journey distances run far longer than in Qatar. Greenly puts spectator travel alone at around 6.82 million tonnes, nearly 3.6 times Qatar’s reported travel emissions for fans and teams combined.

International visitors do most of the damage. They make up about 35% of attendances yet generate roughly 74% of travel emissions. A single fan flying from India produces approximately 3,253 kg CO₂e on the round trip. Team flights, the element most discussed in public, contribute just 0.2%.

How much does one football executive add?

Greenly then turned to a smaller but more pointed number. FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends multiple matches each day, often by private jet. One hour aboard that aircraft generates as much carbon as the average person produces in a year.

Over the tournament, Greenly expects his travel to emit between 300 and 500 tonnes of CO₂. Factor in the non-CO₂ warming effects of aviation at altitude, and the figure could reach 900 tonnes. That equals the annual footprint of 35 to 55 French citizens. It also matches the emissions of 150 to 250 international fans making the round trip to attend.

The comparison lands awkwardly for a governing body that publicly champions sustainability. FIFA has committed to halving its emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2040.

What about the merchandise nobody counts?

Some sources sit almost entirely outside official accounting. Global jersey sales could reach up to 300,000 tonnes of CO₂e, according to Greenly. That is nearly 16 times the combined emissions of every participating team’s flights.

Across the 104 matches, the average carbon footprint reaches roughly 75,000 tonnes per game. Each match therefore carries the annual footprint of nearly 8,000 French citizens.

Why is Qatar a poor benchmark?

Comparisons between the two tournaments need care. Qatar’s official figure of 3.63 million tonnes covers the full 2011 to 2023 reporting period, including over a decade of preparatory emissions. Greenly’s estimate captures only the tournament phase and World Cup-attributable renovations, so the two are directional rather than exact.

Qatar also held structural advantages that 2026 lacks. It sits at the geographic centre of major football regions, shortening flights from Europe, South Asia, and Africa. North America does not offer that. The average international spectator now faces a return journey of roughly 19,400 km, against an estimated 13,000 km for Qatar.

Working the other way, the 2026 hosts run cleaner electricity grids, around 25% less carbon-intensive than Qatar’s. US hotels emit roughly 18 kg CO₂e per person-night, about six times less than Qatar’s air-conditioned desert accommodation. Those gains help, though they cannot offset the travel.

Can a World Cup of this size ever claim net zero?

The answer depends on where the boundary sits. FIFA has published a Sustainability and Human Rights Strategy covering energy, waste, and transport at host-city level. It sets no specific carbon budget for the tournament and does not address spectator travel, the very category Greenly identifies as the bulk of the footprint.

The credibility gap is important. FIFA’s claim of carbon neutrality for Qatar 2022 was ruled unsubstantiated by the Swiss advertising regulator in June 2023, the first formal greenwashing finding against a sporting body. Independent estimates for 2026 range from Greenly’s 7.77 million tonnes to a 9 million tonne projection from Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Environmental Defense Fund. The original 2018 bid, based on 80 matches rather than 104, put the figure at 3.7 million.

The arithmetic, as Greenly frames it, is uncomfortable but simple. A private jet shuttling between stadiums makes a vivid headline. The real weight sits with the millions of fans whose flights are the reason the tournament exists at all.