{"id":39218,"date":"2026-07-13T22:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/13\/gianni-infantino-fifa-chief-leaves-world-cup-on-private-jet-before-semi-finals-world-cup-soccer-sports\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:55:24","slug":"gianni-infantino-fifa-chief-leaves-world-cup-on-private-jet-before-semi-finals-world-cup-soccer-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/13\/gianni-infantino-fifa-chief-leaves-world-cup-on-private-jet-before-semi-finals-world-cup-soccer-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino, FIFA chief, leaves World Cup on private jet before semi-finals | World Cup Soccer | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>FIFA president Gianni Infantino will leave the World Cup and head to the Middle East. Infantino has played in every match so far and there appears to be no question of his presence in the upcoming semi-final, despite him being scheduled to attend the funeral of Qatar&#8217;s recently deceased ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-mce-linkchecker-status=\"valid\">A private jet left Miami for Doha last weekend after England&#8217;s quarter-final victory over Norway. The Mirror said Infantino was involved in the plane and was later seen with other mourners paying respects to the emir&#8217;s late father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Infantino is expected to return to the United States within 24 hours, as the semifinals begin on Tuesday. The 56-year-old has forged close ties with the leaders of Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup, the second major men&#8217;s tournament he has managed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The death of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former emir of Qatar, was confirmed by the country&#8217;s Amiri Diwan on Sunday morning. &#8220;May God have mercy and forgive him,&#8221; the 74-year-old said in a statement on social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Qatar has since announced a four-day mourning period, with heads of state, citizens and others set to pay their respects over the next 48 hours, with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani set to be received. Infantino is expected to be among them, but the visit is unlikely to affect his goal of playing every World Cup match.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>This is not the first time she has jumped from a plane during a competition organized by the governing body of which Infantino is president, having also crossed the Pacific at the 2023 Women&#8217;s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. He came under heavy criticism at the time, and more complaints have come to him in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The controversy over Folarin Balogun&#8217;s red card was the main cause, angering many countries, especially Belgium, who faced the USMNT in the last 16. The co-hosts were ultimately eliminated at the stage by Belgium and lost to Spain in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/2228732\/gianni-infantino-leaves-world-cup-fifa\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FIFA president Gianni Infantino will leave the World Cup and head to the Middle East. Infantino has played in every match so far and there appears to be no question of his presence in the upcoming semi-final, despite him being scheduled to attend the funeral of Qatar&#8217;s recently deceased ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-matches"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gianni Infantino, FIFA chief, leaves World Cup on private jet before semi-finals | World Cup Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/13\/gianni-infantino-fifa-chief-leaves-world-cup-on-private-jet-before-semi-finals-world-cup-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gianni Infantino, FIFA chief, leaves World Cup on private jet before semi-finals | World Cup Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FIFA president Gianni Infantino will leave the World Cup and head to the Middle East. 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