France national team uses ICE deportation planes for World Cup travel

The French men’s national soccer team, whose star Kylian Mbappé is one of the world’s most outspoken athletes against far-right politicians, has been using a charter airplane company that is at the heart of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.Images of the team posted on social media and flight tracking data show the French team have used Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX) for at least three domestic flights between their World Cup games and base camp in Boston. That same airline charter company has operated more than half of ICE’s removal flights in 2024 and 2025.A 2025 Guardian investigation into the Trump administration’s deportation program, which closely examined five-months worth of leaked GlobalX data, revealed the extent to which the company served as the vehicle to move thousands of detainees – domestically and internationally – without notice, to locations far from their families, communities and legal counsel, leading to what experts have called violations of constitutional due process rights. Among other destinations, the company has flown detainees to El Salvador’s Cecot, a notorious mega-prison. Many onboard have described being kept in the dark about where their plane was headed or being shackled at their hands and feet.A screen grab of the French national team using Globall X ‘ICE Air’. Photograph: Obtained by The GuardianGlobalX has not responded to requests for comment. Representatives for the French national team did not respond to multiple requests for comment.The plane the French team took after their match against Paraguay has flown 44 deportation-related flights this year alone, and about 950 flights since 2022. The aircraft carrying the Frenchmen on 4 July was used to transfer detained immigrants from an Arizona detention center to Louisiana as recently as 1 July, according to data provided to The Guardian by ICE Flight Monitor. The group uses publicly available aviation data to track, document, and publish monthly reports on ICE flights and is housed at Human Rights First.“It’s common for certain carriers to oscillate between operating ICE flights and other private entity charter flights, including athletic teams, within a week or even on the same day,” said Sierra Randolph, a data manager for ICE Flight Monitor.The Guardian began looking into the issue after a video posted by the team’s official Instagram showed players including Michael Olise, the London-born Bayern Munich forward, making their way to their seats on a flight from Philadelphia to Boston following France’s 1-0 victory over Paraguay. As Olise passes a flight attendant a sticker bearing the GlobalX logo can be seen on an overhead compartment.The Guardian analyzed aircraft data on the flight tracking website Flightradar24, which showed an Airbus departing Philadelphia international airport around midnight eastern time on 5 July and arriving at Boston Logan international airport about 1am. Researchers at the ICE Flight Monitor matched the flight to an aircraft they regularly monitored for immigration enforcement flights.The French team has no shortage of players who have voiced their political beliefs, none louder than Mbappé. The captain, whose father is from Cameroon and whose mother is of Algerian descent, is among the greatest players the country has ever produced. He has repeatedly and emphatically spoken out against far-right politicians in France and supported teammates who have done the same. In 2024, he referred to gains made by the country’s far-right, anti-immigration National Rally party as “catastrophic”, urging young people in France to keep the country from “falling into the hands of these people”.Several of Mbappé’s teammates have mirrored his sentiments. Midfielder Ousmane Dembélé and defender Jules Koundé have made similar efforts to drive French citizens to the polls, as has forward Marcus Thuram. Thuram’s father, World Cup winner Lilian Thuram, has a lengthy history of activism. Even Zinedine Zidane, widely regarded as among the greatest players in the history of football, has expressed his own anti-right sentiments, speaking out fiercely against National Rally presidential candidate Marine Le Pen in 2017.Mbappé this week made headlines after he hit back at a Paraguayan senator, describing her ⁠as a “despicable woman” after she launched a racist attack on him.Members of the National Rally have responded mockingly to criticisms from French national team members, adopting a “shut up and dribble” attitude that’s become pervasive across the whole of professional sport. Like many other national teams, the French team is multi-cultural and widely viewed as a reflection of the country’s diverse population.France is not the only country whose national teams have flown GlobalX aircrafts between World Cup matches this summer. The Daily Mail reported last month that England’s national squad had a contract with GlobalX, and that Iran had also used the charter airline. A spokesman for the English Football Association, which booked the England team’s flight, declined to comment to the Daily Mail.