World Cup: Domestic abuse reached record high in UK

Domestic abuse incidents during the 2026 FIFA World Cup were at their highest recorded level compared with similar tournaments, the UK Football Policing Unit has said.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the Football Policing National Lead in charge of policing football in the UK, said the World Cup and associated alcohol consumption had led to an overall increase in reported incidents.

In total, 384 domestic violence incidents were reported during the tournament - representing 17 per cent of the 2,322 incidents reported.

There were 391 UK arrests connected with the tournament, marking an increase from the 2024 UEFA European Championships when there were 1,302 incidents in the UK overall connected to the football and 321 arrests.

This year's overall figure also included 1,008 incidents in licensed venues, marking the second highest number for a comparable tournament.

During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, there were 573 incidents and 123 arrests in the UK.

The highest number of overall incidents across England's last five international tournaments came during Euro 2020, played in various countries, including England, in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 2,345 incidents were logged, resulting in 599 arrests.

Chief Constable Roberts said police had also seen an increase in incidents during periods when alcohol licensing had been extended for late matches.

Police incidents during extended licensing included:

• A man being stabbed at a licensed premises following England's match with Argentina;
• A police station surrounded by supporters with bottles and other items thrown;
• A man being stabbed leaving a licensed premises following England's game with Norway;
• A domestic incident of strangulation between a stepfather and stepson following the Norway match;
• And widespread disorder in London following the France-Morocco game.

The number of incidents spiked at about 300 on the night of the England v Norway game when pubs were allowed to stay open until 2am, figures show.

"The domestic abuse that we see around tournaments is certainly linked to alcohol consumption," Chief Constable Roberts said.

"The greater the alcohol consumption, the greater the problem.

"Certainly, on the figures that we can show, there were a large number of offences where the licensing laws were extended.

"There were offences which took place in those times. So there is a direct correlation."

He added that increased alcohol consumption "does increase the problems and that includes on domestic abuse".

Chief Constable Roberts said that while the fallout of the World Cup presented a "gloomy picture" domestically, British football fans who travelled to the US for the tournament had behaved well with few incidents reported.

"The behaviour of the fans was fantastic. Given the significant numbers that travelled, the number of incidents we had were really low," he said.

Local police arrested 22 England fans who had travelled to the tournament, which marked an increase from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar when there were no incidents.

'Threats must be considered'

Regarding forces' ability to plan for the potential for crime in the UK, because licensing was relaxed at short notice on several occasions, Chief Constable Roberts said: "The concern was that the blanket exemption meant there was no opportunity for local scrutiny to make sure that plans were in place and that an area was saturated."

Read more from Sky News:
Two die in water off Essex coast
First parts of UK officially declare drought

He pointed to England's game against Mexico, which had taken place at 1am UK time, resulting in then prime minister Sir Keir Starmer granting pubs an extended licence to serve alcohol until 5am, as a cause for concern.

"In relation to the Mexico game in particular, it was only 48 hours before the game that the laws were changed to extend the licensing," he said.

"That doesn't allow us to re-roster shifts, it doesn't allow us to bring officers on in time … we'd like people to listen to us when we make submissions and suggestions about how to do it."

He added: "We don't want to be killjoys. We want to support businesses, but this can be done with a bit of broader thought, not just to consider the benefits, but also the potential threats and mitigate them."

(c) Sky News 2026: World Cup: Domestic abuse reached record high in UK