Domestic abuse reports reached record highs in the UK during the 2026 World Cup, figures have shown.
In total, 384 domestic violence incidents were reported during the tournament – representing 17 per cent of the 2,322 incidents reported.
Ninety-three per cent occurred around England’s matches and only Euro 2020 (held in 2021) recorded more.
The rise has been described as a worrying increase, with alcohol once again viewed as the lead contributing factor.
“The vast majority of it [incidents] we’d say were alcohol related and that’s a real concern,” Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the Football Policing National Lead in charge of policing football in the UK, told Sky Sports News.
“Increases in domestic abuse, increases in incidents around licensed premises. I think that’s the thing that we’ve seen in a number of tournaments now and that’s really going to be a focus for us as we go forward planning future tournaments.”
The change of licensing hours just 48 hours before the kick-off of the Mexico vs England game was a particular cause for concern.
“We knew the fixtures from December,” Roberts added. “It was pretty straightforward to map out the routes and potential hinge points with the engagements with Mexico and I just think that particular example where the licensing laws were extended in effect on the Friday before a fixture on the Sunday, that doesn’t give us any chance to re-roster officers.
“Yes we accept the difficulties, but for myself, I made our representations to the government to say: ‘Look, there’s a perfectly adequate system here. We’ve got plenty of notices before fixtures, stick with the system’.
“Places can make an application if they’re well run and no doubt they’ll get the extension that they’re after, but it just meant we couldn’t limit it in particular areas so I think that was frustrating. If you know a fixture is potentially going to happen for seven months, we’ve got to do better than changing the law 48 hours before a game.”
Second-highest levels of online hate incidents recorded
Elsewhere, online hate crime saw 293 incidents, which is is the second-highest recorded after Euro 2020 where police dealt with 393 online hate crimes. With online hate, police saw 750 referrals relating to England matches. All were reviewed, with 293 reaching the threshold for online hate crimes and prosecution.
Although the numbers are still being analysed, police believe a large proportion came from outside the UK.
Roberts said: “Some of this stuff is vile, it’s unpleasant, but doesn’t meet the legal threshold, but grossly offensive. So, we will identify those which meet the legal threshold.
“If we can identify the offender and they’re based in the UK, UKFPU will send it to the [local] force and they will do the prosecution. At the recent Women’s Euros, where the team was successful, there was the abuse of Jess Carter where we successfully prosecuted people.
“So, the process works. The difficulty is if it is from abroad as we’re then dependent on foreign law enforcement to deal with it. Obviously there’s different laws in different places and no one does it like we do it. There’s no other law enforcement in any other country that takes it seriously. That deals with it, either for their own people or when we give reports across.
“We will encourage people to work with us and support and prosecute people abroad, but certainly in this country if we identify them they will be prosecuted.”
Figures to help planning for Euro 2028
The 2026 World Cup data will aid the huge police planning process that is already under way for Euro 2028, which is being co-hosted by England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.
Roberts said: “I think the key thing for us now is identifying things that we need to fix first so licensing will be an example. We need to be really clear and have a policy in place. In terms of the event itself, I think it will be fantastic. It will be an incredible spectacle.”
He continued: “The world in two years will be different to what it is now so we need to stay alive to what those threats are; the geopolitical situations. We need to do the intelligence gathering to understand what threats come from other countries in the same way that we would always stress when our teams go abroad. Treat them on behaviour, not reputation.
“We need to understand the fans of some of the visiting countries are a lot more problematic than the fans here. So, we need to have those plans in place to be able to deal with them effectively. Whether that starts from not letting them in the country in the first place to managing them to make sure we’ve got processes in place.
“Each of the host cities needs to be really clear on their events, who is responsible for the ownership, what the licensing policies are locally. So, it’s really working through all those things that we see as a potential threat, and making sure there’s a plan in place.”
Chief Constable happy with ‘exemplary’ travelling supporters
While issues in the UK continue to be analysed, Roberts was pleased with the behaviour of those who travelled over to the United States, Mexico and Canada for the World Cup.
Figures released by the Football Policing Unit reveal that just 22 police ‘actions’ occurred at the World Cup involving England supporters. It is a rise on the previous World Cup in Qatar where there were zero ‘actions’ and on the three in Russia in 2018.
But, given an estimated figure well in excess of 100,000 England fans attended games this year compared with 7,000 in Qatar and 5,000 in Russia, it has earned praise from the UK’s top football police officer.
“I think the fans who travelled out there, almost exclusive, were an absolute credit,” Roberts said.
“They enjoyed it. The support of the team was fantastic. I don’t think anyone will ever forget the scenes of ‘Wonderwall’ with the fans and the players singing it. So, I think that behaviour was really good as expected. That was a real positive.”
Particular praise related to the Mexico vs England last-16 fixture at the Azteca where police saw and heard from the Football Supporters’ Association and England fans about the camaraderie between the two sets of supporters, including multiple examples of Mexican fans congratulating and wishing England good luck inside and outside the stadium.
The 22 police actions broke down into incidents of public order offences, unauthorised entry, assault, touting, intoxication, ejection and one case of sexual battery which after review did not necessitate prosecution. Alcohol was the contributing factor in the majority of the incidents.
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