FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney signed the Russian flag during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This was reported by Russian media.
The incident occurred during a match between the Canadian and Qatari national teams. Infantino and Carney were approached by a man with Russian symbols and asked to leave an autograph on the Russian flag.
According to Russian media, Carney was busy communicating with other people at the time and could not have noticed what he was signing. At the same time, Infantino allegedly saw the flag and even briefly talked to the Russian fan.
After that, the man told the details of the meeting:
“I am from Moscow. “Nulovka” is our group of friends, a small fan club of the Russian national team. Since 2014, we have been traveling together to all the national team matches. Yesterday we were at the Canada-Qatar game. It suddenly turned out that Infantino was sitting right next to us, a little higher.
We went up to take a picture – he was completely in favor, even with the flag. He said to us in Russian: “Okay, thank you.” There was security, but they behaved very loyally. We took a picture, and I asked them and the Prime Minister of Canada to sign the flag, on which I had previously collected autographs of the entire Russian national team. They signed without any problems.
In the match during which this episode occurred, the Canadian national team defeated Qatar with a score of 6:0. During the match, the tournament hosts set two historical records.
