UK domestic abuse reached record high during recent football World Cup

Sky News reports that the UK Football Policing Unit has said that domestic abuse incidents during the 2026 FIFA World Cup were at their highest recorded level compared with similar tournaments.

Read the Sky News article here

In total, 384 domestic violence incidents were reported during the tournament. This represents a 9% increase in incidents compared to the 2024 UEFA European Championships, when there were 351 reported domestic abuse incidents in the UK.

Here at Crimestoppers, we have just finished running our ‘Let's call time on abuse’ campaign, which highlighted the increased risk of domestic abuse incidents during the football World Cup, and encouraged people to give information about what they knew to our charity, whilst remaining 100% anonymous.

Our campaign page, here on our website, was viewed more than 56,000 times during the tournament and we received many pieces of information from concerned people.

Find out more about our campaign here

27 July 2026