For most people, a World Cup is a month of shared excitement. For some, it is a month of dread. Researchers and domestic-abuse charities have long documented a darker pattern that shadows major football tournaments: a measurable rise in domestic abuse, most clearly seen in England, and most closely tied not to the football itself but to what surrounds it, as examined by France 24. With the 2026 tournament under way, campaigners are again urging people to be alert to it.
What the research shows
The most-cited evidence comes from research at Lancaster University, which examined reports of domestic abuse around England's matches at successive World Cups. It found that incidents rose on the days England played, and that the increase was greater when the team lost, though abuse rose even when England won. The finding, replicated and refined in later work, reframed a comfortable assumption: the problem was not confined to defeat and disappointment, but attached to the heightened emotion and, above all, the drinking that tournaments encourage. Later studies using police data have suggested reports tend to peak in the hours after a match, once fans have returned home.
The role of alcohol
Alcohol runs through the research as a common thread. Studies that have separated incidents by whether the perpetrator had been drinking point to alcohol as the main driver of the tournament-time rise, rather than the result on the pitch alone. That distinction matters, because it locates the problem not in football but in the behavior around it. As domestic-abuse charities are careful to stress, matches do not cause abuse; abusers do. What a tournament can do, they argue, is supply the conditions, drink, crowds, heightened emotion and social permission, in which an abuser who already seeks to control and harm may do so more readily.
What campaigners are doing
Charities have used the tournament to raise awareness and reach those at risk. Women's Aid, a leading UK domestic-abuse charity, has run a campaign it calls "The Other Kick-Off," drawing attention to the late-evening hours after matches that many survivors fear, and steering people toward support, Women's Aid said. With the 2026 World Cup shared across North America, campaigners and support organizations in the host countries and beyond have sought to coordinate their messaging, aware that the tournament's global reach means its risks are not confined to any one nation.
Getting help
For anyone experiencing abuse, charities emphasize that support is available before, during and after a tournament, and that reports are taken seriously by police and services alike. Organizations such as Women's Aid and Refuge in the UK, and national domestic-violence networks in other countries, offer confidential advice, practical help and, where needed, emergency accommodation. The point campaigners return to is a simple one: the football is a backdrop, not an excuse, and the responsibility for abuse lies with the person who commits it. Naming the pattern, they argue, is a step toward making sure fewer people face it alone.
