Fifa President Gianni Infantino is facing intense criticism after leaving the Women's World Cup just five days in for a tour of member associations in Oceania. He has missed four matchdays so far.
By comparison, he attended at least part of all 64 matches of the Men's World Cup last year in Qatar.
That would be impossible at the Women's World Cup given the distance between the games hosted in New Zealand and opposite coasts of Australia, but Infantino left after only five days and has yet to attend a single match in Australia.
In fact, he has not visited that country since it was announced as co-host alongside New Zealand three years ago, though he spent most of the year before the Men's World Cup in Qatar, "in order to deliver his presidential duties and be closer to the FIFA World Cup," according to Fifa.
Infantino has only seen 12 of the teams in the current World Cup's field of 32.
Infantino has repeatedly called for equal respect of the women's game.
On Instagram Infantino has called the tournament "a celebration of equality" and acclaimed that it would be the "best-attended" so far. He's also repeatedly posted, "It's time to respect women."
Just last week he reminded fans in New Zealand, "It's never too late to do the right thing, come to watch the matches."
Sky News reports that Infantino's private jet left Tahiti on 17 July and stayed in New Zealand until the 25th, when it returned to Tahiti. Infantino has since traveled to the Cook Islands. Videos have been posted to his Instagram account of him interacting with male and female players from both countries.
The caption to the first reads:
"The ongoing Fifa Women's World Cup is also the World Cup of the whole of Oceania, and thus today, in Tahiti, I start a journey which will take me to the members of FIFA in the Pacific Islands."
