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INCREASE IN RACISM DURING WORLD CUP REFLECTS ‘GROWING PATTERN OF
ABUSE’  
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Ashifa Kassam
July 9, 2026
The Guardian
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_ Experts say rise in social media attacks on players such as Kylian
Mbappé needs to be viewed in wider political context _

Kylian Mbappé, playing for France, was the subject of an alleged
racist attack on social media by a Paraguayan senator after a match
against Paraguay in the World Cup. , Britannica

 

As players in the World Cup
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their tactics and hone their teamwork skills ahead of the
quarter-finals, a chorus of voices have warned that the rise of
divisive political rhetoric is translating into an intensifying
challenge for players on the pitch: a surge in racism.

“There’s a huge issue,” said Samuel Okafor, the chief executive
of Kick It Out [[link removed]], a
UK-based organisation that seeks to tackle discrimination in football.
“The political climate that we’re facing is clearly finding its
way into football. And it’s making a huge difference in the levels
of abuse we’re seeing – people are certainly being emboldened now
more than ever.”

The abuse is heightened by the fact that social media firms, for the
most part, remain unaccountable for ensuring that their platforms are
free from discrimination, he said. “What should be a moment of
celebration is clearly being marred by the abuse that’s happening
online but also in stadiums.”

Among the first to sound the alarm during the tournament was the
global players’ union Fifpro, which said this week
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that players were facing “a growing pattern of abuse” as it called
for collective action to protect them.

“In recent weeks, players have faced abuse online and in person,
much of it racist and discriminatory,” it said in a statement.
“There has been intimidation and hostility beyond the pitch. These
incidents are not isolated; they point to a systemic pattern that
cannot remain an accepted part of football or society.”

The tournament has been punctuated by a spate of incidents, from the
Dutch football association, the KNVB, saying it had filed
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an official complaint after players were targeted online with racist
abuse following the Netherland’s loss against Morocco, to the Paris
prosecutor this week launching an investigation
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into the alleged racist attack on Kylian Mbappé by a Paraguayan
senator.

Earlier this month, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, called on the
media regulator, Ofcom, to investigate what he described as the “out
of control” online racism directed at World Cup players, including
the England squad. “We can’t allow a vile minority to divide
us,” he said on social media, while the former Yugoslavia and
Atlético Madrid striker Rade Bogdanović caused outrage by making a
racist comment on Serbian TV about Black players.

Data collected by Fifa’s social media protection service suggested
the incidents were just the tip of the iceberg. The service said it
had seen a 13-fold increase ⁠in online abuse
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during the group stage of the World Cup.

Racially motivated abuse was the single largest category, making up
11% of flagged posts – up from 8% during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar
– leading Fifa [[link removed]] to note:
“the data trends show a concerning direction of travel in terms of
racially aggravated abuse”. More than 100 posts had been referred to
law enforcement officials, it added.

While some of the increased social media activity could be owing to
the tournament’s expanded format or better detection systems, Okafor
said the data was broadly in line with what Kick It Out was hearing on
the ground.

“What we’ve seen in English football is a week-on-week increase in
discrimination towards players, match officials and their families,”
he said. “I think it’s no surprise that we’re seeing the Dutch
players, the German players, the French players, the English players
all facing racial abuse because that’s been the picture we’ve seen
this season in domestic football, but also in seasons before that.”

As a growing number of political leaders express racist thoughts and
views, the window of what had become normalised had shifted, said
Jacco van Sterkenburg, a professor who studies racism in sports at
Erasmus University, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

“Most people would dismiss explicit racism, but the more implicit,
subtle forms of racism have become almost more acceptable, or they are
not easily detected any more because of the broader atmosphere,” he
said. “And that subtle form of racism is the breeding ground, one
could say, for the more explicit forms of racism to occur.”

Researchers have long documented
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the use of racially coded language in football, from commentators who
are more likely to describe Black players using references to
athleticism, speed and power, to those who minimise their tactical
intelligence, technique or decision-making.

Van Sterkenburg drew a direct link between these coded forms of racism
and the overt discrimination that was now making headlines. “These
subtle forms of racism create a context in which other explicit forms
of racism become more possible.”

For Human Rights Watch, it was impossible to untangle the surge in
racism with the fact that much of the World Cup was taking place in
the US, under the watch of an administration that had long embraced
xenophobic language while carrying out an unprecedented immigration
crackdown.

“If they’re deporting hundreds of thousands of people, often
people of colour, then that is the backdrop for this World Cup,”
said Minky Worden of the organisation. “And it has to be affecting
the uptick in racist attacks.”

Fifa had done little to address this wider context, despite the
existence of statutes governing human rights and non-discrimination,
she said.

[Trump seated holding World Cup trophy with. US flag behind and
Infantino standing]
Donald Trump with Fifa’s Gianni Infantino in August. Photograph:
Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Instead, the global football body had seemingly sought to present
itself as being in lockstep with the US administration, from
reportedly reducing
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the prominence of its anti-racism campaigning during last year’s
Club World Cup in the US to naming Donald Trump as the first winner
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of the newly created Fifa peace prize.

“I think it is highly correlated,” said Worden. “So if
communities of colour are under constant attack by the Trump
administration, and [Fifa president] Gianni Infantino has been
constantly pictured with Donald Trump in the White House, it sends the
message that even if there are (anti-racism) initiatives at Fifa,
they’re not very serious.”

The organisation has long expressed concerns that – much like in
Russia and Qatar – the World Cup in the US could become a
“sportswashing bonanza” for the Trump administration.

“Fifa partnering with autocrats everywhere has sent a signal,”
said Worden. “Fifa’s failure to implement its own rules on
non-discrimination in Russia and Qatar and the United States has
absolutely sent a green light to communities of hate that it will be
OK to attack players.”

_Ashifa Kassam is the Guardian's European community affairs
correspondent_

* World Cup
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* Racism
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* intimidation
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