FIFA Report: France Faced Most Homophobic Online Abuse During 2026 World Cup

In October 2026, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) released the tournament report from its Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) covering the 2026 men’s World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. According to the document, players on the French national team were subjected to the highest volume of targeted homophobic online abuse of any team at the tournament.

As reported by British publication PinkNews, citing official FIFA data, the SMPS initiative—developed in partnership with data science firm Signify Group—scanned more than 17.1 million public posts and comments on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok between June 9 and July 20. Artificial intelligence algorithms flagged 477,217 posts for human review, and analysts verified 240,676 as abusive, directed at 812 players, managers, and match officials. This marked an elevenfold increase in detected abuse compared to the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar.

Across all confirmed violations, 43% consisted of general abuse and profanity not targeting protected characteristics. When analyzing targeted hate specifically, homophobia accounted for 7% (and 4% of total verified abuse), trailing only racism (20%), allegations of match-fixing or corruption (15%), threats of violence (14%), and xenophobia (12%). The French squad became the primary target for individual abuse at the tournament, drawing over 18,000 confirmed toxic messages. Racism and general abuse each made up 33% of the attacks against French players, while France led all 48 participating nations in the absolute volume of homophobic abuse. Furthermore, a single unnamed player received over 10,000 abusive messages, becoming the leading target of homophobia, sexism, and transphobia alongside racism (40%).

Automated proactive moderation on official FIFA and team accounts screened 60.7 million comments, hiding 9.2 million (15%) before they could be viewed by the public. Among the hidden toxic comments, 7.8% were identified as homophobic. Following the tournament, investigators referred 786 accounts to law enforcement agencies and completed 87 deep-dive investigations, verifying identities behind dozens of accounts for potential legal prosecution. FIFA President Gianni Infantino stressed that online abuse inflicts severe harm on the mental health and emotional well-being of participants and their families, reiterating that Article 4 of the FIFA Statutes strictly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) was launched by FIFA and the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPRO) ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to shield participants from digital hostility. The system uses Signify’s Threat Matrix machine learning software to hide abusive messages in real time and preserve evidence for law enforcement. During the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, SMPS monitoring similarly revealed that homophobia made up more than 20% of all confirmed discriminatory messages, with the United States and Argentina squads drawing the highest volumes.

Uránia previously reported on LGBT controversies surrounding the 2026 World Cup in North America, including Iran’s demand to ban Pride flags in stadiums and disputes surrounding the Seattle “Pride Match” between Iran and Egypt.