World Cup 2026: Reports of domestic abuse in UK hit record high, major incidents around England games rise | football news

Reports of domestic abuse in the UK hit a record high during the 2026 World Cup, figures show.

In total, 384 incidents of domestic violence were reported during the tournament – ​​representing 17 percent of the 2,322 incidents reported.

93 percent occurred around England matches and only Euro 2020 (held in 2021) recorded more.

The increase has been described as an alarming increase, with alcohol seen as a major contributing factor.

“Most of these (incidents) we would say are alcohol related and that is a real concern,” said Chief Constable Mark Roberts, national lead for football policing in the UK, who is responsible for policing football. Sky Sports News.

“The increase in domestic violence, the increase in incidents around licensed premises. I think that’s something we’ve seen in a number of tournaments now and that’s going to be a focus for us as we’re going to plan for future tournaments.”

A particular cause for concern was the change in license timing just 48 hours before the Mexico v England game.

“We knew the fixture from December,” added Roberts. “It was quite easy to map out routes and potential hinge points with the engagement with Mexico and I can only think of that particular instance where the licensing laws were enforced on the Friday before a Sunday fixture, giving us no opportunity to re-enlist our officers.

“Yes we accept the difficulties, but for myself, I made our presentation to the government saying: ‘Look, there’s a perfectly adequate system. We’ve got plenty of notice before fixtures, stick to the system’.

“Venues can make an application if they run well and no doubt they will get the extension later, but that meant we couldn’t restrict it to certain areas so I think that was disappointing. If you know a match is going to happen for possibly seven months, we have to do better than changing the law 48 hours before the game.”

Second highest level of online hate incidents recorded

Elsewhere, online hate crime saw 293 incidents, the second highest recorded after Euro 2020 where police dealt with 393 online hate crimes. With online hate, police saw 750 referrals related to the England match. In all reviewed, 293 online hate crimes and prosecutions were brought to the fore.

Although the numbers are still being analysed, police believe a large proportion came from outside the UK.

Roberts said: “Some of this stuff is disgusting, it’s unpleasant, but doesn’t meet the legal threshold, but is grossly offensive. So, we’ll identify those that meet the legal threshold.

“If we can identify the perpetrator and they are in the UK, the UKFPU will pass it on to the (local) force and they will prosecute. 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’s from overseas because then we’re dependent on foreign law enforcement to deal with it. Obviously there are different laws in different places and nobody does it like we do. There’s no other law enforcement agency in any other country that takes it seriously. It’s for their own people or when we do the reports that deal with it.

“We would encourage people to work with us and support and prosecute people overseas, but of course if we identify them in this country they will be prosecuted.”

Statistics to help plan for Euro 2028

Data from the 2026 World Cup will support the massive police planning process already underway 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 to identify the things that we need to fix first so licensing would be an example. We need to be really clear and have a policy. In terms of the event, I think it will be great. It will be an incredible spectacle.”

He continued: “In two years the world will be different from what it is now so we have to live with what those threats are; the geopolitical situation. As we always stress when our teams go abroad, we have to gather intelligence to understand what threats come from other countries. Deal with them, not reputation.

“We have to understand that fans in some visiting countries are much more problematic than fans here. So, we need to have those plans in place to deal with them effectively. It’s from not letting them in their country in the first place, to managing them, we’ve got processes in place to make sure.

“Each host city has to be really clear about their events, who’s responsible for ownership, what the licensing policies are locally. So, it’s really working through all the things that we see as a potential threat, and making sure there’s a plan in place.”

Chief Constable happy with ‘exemplary’ traveling supporters

While UK’s problems continue to be analysed, Roberts was pleased with the behavior of those who traveled to the US, Mexico and Canada for the World Cup.

Figures released by the Football Policing Unit reveal that just 22 police ‘actions’ involving England fans have occurred at the World Cup. It was the previous World Cup in Qatar that had zero ‘action’ and increased to three World Cups in Russia in 2018.

But, with figures estimated that more than 100,000 England fans attended the game this year, compared to 7,000 in Qatar and 5,000 in Russia, it earned praise from the UK’s top football police officer.

“I think the fact that the fans traveled there, almost exclusively, was an absolute achievement,” Roberts said.

“They enjoyed it. The team support was great. I don’t think anyone will ever forget the scenes at ‘Wonderwall’ with the fans and the players singing. So, I think the behavior was really good as expected. It was a real positive.”

Special praise related to the Mexico v England last-16 match at the Azteca where police saw and heard from the Football Supporters’ Association and England fans about the camaraderie between the two sets of fans, with multiple instances of Mexican fans congratulating and wishing England well both inside and outside the stadium.

The 22 police actions were broken down into incidents of public order offences, trespassing, assault, pimping, intoxication, ejection and one sexual battery which did not require a trial after review. Alcohol was the culprit in most cases.