FIFA President Gianni Infantino has returned to the Women’s World Cup after almost a week away – to make his first appearance of the tournament in Australia.
The absence – revealed by Sky News last week – comes despite Mr Infantino imploring fans to “do the right thing” by filling stadiums.
He made a virtue of spending every matchday at the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year and then calling for greater respect for women’s football – even threatening to take this tournament off British television for rights fees being too low.
Mr Infantino’s private plane has been tracked flying today into Melbourne where he is due to watch Australia’s final group match against Canada.
It is his first known visit to Australia since the country was awarded hosting rights three years ago with New Zealand.
Mr Infantino watched five days of matches in New Zealand before flying out to the island of Tahiti last Tuesday. He also visited the popular holiday destination before the tournament.
FIFA has not explained what he was doing across three days in Tahiti before Mr Infantino’s Instagram account featured a video of him meeting the local football association on Friday.
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Mr Infantino was in Tonga, another island in the Pacific, earlier today.
He posted on Instagram: “We are here to care about those that nobody really cares about. We are here to be with those who are living in the remotest areas of the world, and about those who never give up and want to live their dreams.
“We are here to give everyone a chance. We are here for that, and we are proud to be here in Oceania.”
Mr Infantino did not leave Qatar to tour that region and miss men’s World Cup matches during last year’s tournament.
He is now in Australia which has been hostile towards his leadership of FIFA – with the football leadership and player backlash forcing FIFA to drop plans for Visit Saudi to sponsor the Women’s World Cup over rights concerns.
