France’s national football team used Global Crossing Airlines (G6), branded GlobalX, for domestic charter flights during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including a trip from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). The Guardian first reported the connection on 7 July, after reporters Sophie Sullivan and Pablo Iglesias Maurer traced the aircraft’s flight history. The story has drawn attention because GlobalX is also one of the largest charter contractors flying deportation missions for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Flight tracking data shows the same aircraft that carried the French squad had transported detained immigrants just days earlier. The overlap has raised questions given that several France players, led by captain Kylian Mbappé, have publicly criticized France’s far-right National Rally party and anti-immigration politics.
GlobalX Carried France’s Team Between World Cup Matches
Footage posted to the French national team’s official Instagram account showed players, including Bayern Munich forward Michael Olise, boarding a GlobalX-operated aircraft after France’s 1-0 win over Paraguay in the round of 16. A GlobalX logo was visible on an overhead compartment sticker during the boarding sequence, which prompted researchers to examine the flight in closer detail.
Flightradar24 data reviewed by The Guardian showed an Airbus departing Philadelphia International Airport shortly after midnight on 5 July and landing at Boston Logan International Airport about an hour later. Researchers at ICE Flight Monitor, a project that tracks immigration enforcement flights, matched the aircraft to one they regularly monitor. The France squad used GlobalX for at least three domestic flights during the tournament, between matches and its training base near Boston.
The Same Aircraft Had Just Flown ICE Deportation Missions
Data provided to The Guardian by ICE Flight Monitor showed the aircraft that carried the French team on 4 July had completed 44 deportation-related flights during 2025 alone, and roughly 950 such flights since 2022. On 1 July, three days before flying the France squad, the same plane transferred detained immigrants from an Arizona detention facility to Louisiana.
GlobalX has become one of the largest single operators of ICE removal flights in recent years. Reports indicate the airline operated more than half of all ICE deportation flights during 2024 and 2025, making it central to the Trump administration’s expanded removal program.
Sierra Randolph, a data manager for ICE Flight Monitor, said aircraft frequently shift between government contract work and private charters. She told The Guardian that carriers can move between ICE flights and other charter bookings, including sports teams, “within a week or even on the same day.”
A Guardian Investigation Raised Broader Due Process Concerns
The connection to France’s team follows a wider Guardian investigation published in 2025, based on five months of leaked GlobalX operational data. That reporting examined how the airline moved thousands of immigration detainees across the United States and to international destinations, including El Salvador’s CECOT prison, a maximum-security facility that has drawn international scrutiny over its conditions.
The investigation described detainees being relocated without advance notice, often to locations far from their families, communities, and legal representatives. Legal experts cited in that reporting said the practice could raise constitutional due process concerns for people facing removal proceedings.
Some former detainees said they were not told their destination before departure. Others reported remaining in hand and foot restraints throughout the flight, a detail that has also surfaced in earlier reporting on GlobalX’s ICE contract work.
France’s Players Have Been Outspoken on Far-Right Politics
The overlap has drawn extra attention because of the political profile of several France players. Mbappé, whose father has roots in Cameroon and whose mother has Algerian heritage, has repeatedly urged young voters to reject the National Rally. Ahead of France’s 2024 snap parliamentary elections, he called the party’s first-round gains “catastrophic” and warned the country not to let itself “fall into the hands of these people.”
Teammates Jules Koundé and Marcus Thuram also spoke out during that same election period, with Koundé telling reporters he was disappointed by the direction the country was taking. Thuram’s father, 1998 World Cup winner Lilian Thuram, has long been a prominent anti-racism advocate in France. Former France captain Zinedine Zidane separately criticized National Rally leader Marine Le Pen ahead of her 2017 presidential run.
France’s squad is often described as a reflection of the country’s multicultural population, a framing that makes political questions involving its players especially visible during major tournaments.
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Mbappé Also Clashed with a Paraguayan Senator During the Tournament
Mbappé made headlines again during the World Cup after Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla posted a series of racist remarks about him following Paraguay’s elimination. Mbappé responded on social media, calling her a “despicable woman” who was unworthy of her office. The French Football Federation said it would refer the matter to prosecutors, and France’s government publicly backed its captain.
Some National Rally figures have previously dismissed criticism from France’s players, arguing athletes should stay out of political debate. The pattern has repeated through multiple tournaments, with Mbappé and his teammates continuing to speak on political and social issues despite pushback from far-right politicians at home.
England And Iran Also Flew GlobalX During the Tournament
France was not the only national team reported to have used GlobalX aircraft during the 2026 World Cup. Separate reporting found that England’s men’s team flew with the airline under a charter arrangement, and that Iran’s national team also used GlobalX-operated aircraft during the tournament.
A spokesperson for the English Football Association, which arranged the England team’s charter flights, declined to comment publicly on the arrangement. The overlapping cases have intensified scrutiny of how commercial charter contracts for professional sports organizations intersect with the same airlines’ government transportation work.
Why Sports Teams and Charter Airlines Overlap with ICE Contracts
Charter airlines like GlobalX operate a mixed business model that includes government contracts, sports team travel, and other private bookings. This flexibility helps carriers keep aircraft utilization high, since a single jet can serve a deportation flight one day and a sports charter the next.
- GlobalX operates a fleet of Airbus A320-family aircraft used across its charter and government contract work
- The airline has held ICE charter contracts since 2024 and operated the majority of ICE removal flights in 2024 and 2025
- Sports charters and ICE flights are booked separately but can use the same aircraft within days of each other
- Teams and federations typically do not select the specific tail number assigned to their charter
- Public flight-tracking tools, including Flightradar24, allow outside researchers to trace individual aircraft between assignments
That flexibility is also what allowed reporters and researchers to trace France’s charter aircraft back to its ICE deportation history in the first place. Publicly available flight-tracking data made it possible to match the exact tail number used for the France, England, and Iran charters to aircraft with recent ICE removal missions, without requiring access to any internal airline records.
References
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- AOL, France national team uses ICE deportation planes for World Cup travel
- TheStreet, French national football team latest to get called out over use of deportation planes
- Simple Flying, France Men’s National Team Used ICE Deportation Plane To Fly From World Cup, Report Finds
- NBC News, Mbappé fires back at Paraguayan senator’s racist attack after France victory
- CNN, Kylian Mbappé calls first round of French elections ‘catastrophic’ after country’s lurch to the far-right
- Euronews, Mbappé warns of ‘catastrophic’ situation in France as politics take centre stage at Euro 2024
- ProPublica, Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is “Only a Matter of Time”