The Swiss-Italian official had stayed in New Zealand for eight days before departing on July 25, five days after the competition had begun, as his private jet was tracked flying to Tahiti.

He was on a pre-arranged tour to meet representatives of Oceania Football Confederation member associations.

Infantino then travelled to Tonga to inspect development work taking place in the country.

"I'm very happy to be in Tonga today," he wrote on Instagram.

"It's great to see the fantastic work, that is done by Lord Ve’ehela and his whole team at the Tonga Football Association, to provide young girls and boys a chance to dream about pursuing our beautiful sport of football.

"We are here to care about those that nobody really cares about. 

"We are here to be with those who are living in the remotest areas of the world, and about those who never give up and want to live their dreams.

"We are here to give everyone a chance.

"We are here for that, and we are proud to be here in Oceania.

"The whole Pacific is celebrating women, is celebrating the FIFA Women's World Cup, is celebrating football.

"We give dreams, we give opportunities, and to see the smiles on the faces of these girls and boys as well; these are the World Cups that Tonga is winning every day and I'm proud to be witnessing that."

Infantino then returned to the tournament, travelling to Melbourne to watch Australia's match against Canada.

It marks the first known visit he has made to the nation since it was awarded the tournament's hosting rights in 2020.

His absence from the women's tournament marks a stark difference to that of the men's edition last year in Qatar.

He was mainly based in the country for more than a year leading up to the tournament and attended almost all of the 64 matches.