18 July 2026
Seven Million Reasons to Hate: Abuse Aimed at World Cup Players
FIFA's monitoring service detected seven million abusive comments directed at players and staff during the 2026 World Cup, the governing body has revealed.
According to Reuters, FIFA's Social Media Protection Service picked up seven million abusive comments aimed at players, teams and officials across the course of the 2026 World Cup. The service was designed specifically to shield those involved in the tournament from online threats and harassment.
The sheer scale of the figure underlines how badly social media abuse has grown around elite football, even as governing bodies and platforms claim to be tackling the problem. FIFA's service monitors posts in real time and flags harmful content directed at those inside the tournament bubble.
The findings land just days before Sunday's final between Argentina and Spain, a reminder that behind the spectacle on the pitch, many of those playing in it have been targeted with a torrent of hatred from anonymous accounts.
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