FIFA President Leaves Women's World Cup After Begging Fans To Buy Tickets, Attending Every Game Of Men's Event

About a week and a half after begging New Zealanders to buy tickets to the Women's World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino reportedly decided to take a trip in the middle of the tournament.

This comes after he attended part of every match at the men's tournament in Qatar just last year.

Dude, read the room...

According to the Daily Mail, Infantino jetted off to Tahiti (using his private jet) and missed four days of matches while the World Cup went on without him.

Of course, he's by no means obligated to watch every match. When they're spread out the way they are between Australia and New Zealand, that may not even be logistically possible. But would it hurt to seem somewhat interested in the tournament?

FIFA President Gianni Infantino (back row, center) watching Japan play Zambia while probably thinking about how much he'd rather be in Tahiti. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Just Days Earlier Infantino Begged Fans To Buy Tickets, Talked Up Women's Soccer

As I said, this is just days removed from Infantino begging New Zealanders to buy tickets

At that same press conference, he said this to the #haters who didn't want to watch women's soccer.

“Many people who still believe that women’s football is not, you know, great, a great game or it’s not so entertaining or it’s a kind of a bad copy of men’s football, or some stuff like that,” he said. “Well, when they watch a game for the first time, they will actually see that it’s a fantastic game. It’s very entertaining. It’s great athletes playing, the level has grown incredibly in the last 10 years, and the best are coming here.”

And you're not hanging out to watch because... why?

Now we're all well aware that FIFA leadership isn't known for its scruples, but c'mon, man. It's one month every four years. Just hang out for a month and watch the soccer you told everyone is so great.

No can do, apparently. He hasn't even been to matches in Australia yet!

Couldn't A Tahiti Trip Wait A Little Bit?

Infantino has also been the FIFA president since 2016. That'd mean this whole World Cup thing didn't sneak up on him. He didn't have that trip to Tahiti booked before the World Cup was announced in 2020.

In fairness, he did some official business by meeting with the Tahitian Football Federation. They're not members of FIFA yet, though they could be at some point.

If I was a women's soccer player (I'm not one, nor do I have plans to be), I would be pretty upset. One way to create at least the illusion that FIFA values the Women's World Cup would be for the head muckety-muck to at least pretend to be interested in it.

Meh.

I get that it's winter there at the moment, but the man couldn't make it 10 days down under before hauling ass to the nearest tropical locale.

Maybe he was just taking a victory lap. As Front Office Sports reports, the World Cup is on pace to surpass the 2015 World Cup in Canada in terms of attendance.

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