More World Cup stories emerging as the tournament progresses...
The Iranian team had earlier made a statement on their arrival to the tournament. They landed across the Mexican border from California early Sunday morning. The players were wearing prominent gold lapel pins saying '168': a reference to the people killed, most of them children, in a February 28 missile strike on a girls' school in southern Iran on the first day of the war with the United States and Israel.
The so-called "hydration breaks" (not really needed when it was pouring with rain in one match, or in air conditioned stadiums in others) are being booed by specatators but are very lucrative - although FIFA says they aren't. Are they here to stay?
This article explores the involvement of oil companies...
This one follows on from the above and explores the role of migrant workers in the supply chains which enable the tournament to continue.
Gianni Infantino has been seen at lots of matches.
The BBC has been investigating the carbon cost of his 'jet setting' lifestyle during the tournament.
In Fifa's 2026 World Cup sustainability and human rights strategy, the president said: "Whether we speak about climate, human rights, diseases or disabilities, we are committed to play our part."
BBC Verify and BBC Sport have been tracking a private jet - linked to Fifa and Infantino - which has taken 27 flights during the tournament to cities where the Fifa boss has been pictured attending matches.
The estimated climate impact from this jet over a fortnight is roughly equivalent to those from 78 people on average over a whole year.
Freddie Daley, who works for the sport climate action network Cool Down, called Infantino's apparent use of a private jet at the World Cup "symptomatic of Fifa's failings on the environment and sustainability".
"The fact that Infantino's choosing to use a private jet is just completely at odds with the level of leadership that we need to see at the top of Fifa on environmental issues," says Daley, a researcher at Sussex University.
Private jets have a "completely disproportionate impact", says Denise Auclair, a sustainable travel expert at the European Federation for Transport and Environment. "They are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes and 50 times more than trains."
Comments