Almost 3,000 websites have been blocked or seized for illegally streaming World Cup matches, the US Department of Justice has said, in a global crackdown that involved arrests in Colombia and operations named 'operation offsides' and 'operation red card'.
More than 1,000 domains were shut down in the US alone during the tournament, with a similar number blocked in Colombia. The enforcement, largely overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), targeted unauthorised broadcasts that violate intellectual property rights and, according to Ivan J. Arvelo, director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (NIPRCC), "fuels criminal organizations".
“Nearly 3,000 illegal World Cup streaming sites shut down in US and Colombia, with arrests.”
The DOJ had previously taken down 400 webpages at the end of last month, but the latest figures confirm that hundreds more have now been removed or blocked. A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general, said the "sustained effort to seize more than a thousand domains dedicated to illegally streaming the World Cup confirms the administration's commitment to intellectual property rights and to the success of the 2026 FIFA World Cup".
In Colombia, four members of a cybercriminal group known as Los Ciberinfiltrados were arrested for allegedly gaining and distributing access to World Cup games illegally. Another 830 websites were blocked across Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and other countries in the region.
The illegal streaming of sports often happens through webpages created specifically for the event, costing broadcasters and companies billions of dollars a year, according to estimates. Football has been pirated at an "industrial scale", analysts say, partly because the rising cost of broadcasting rights has pushed up prices for fans, driving some to seek illegal streams to avoid the expense.
Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which helped in the police effort, said the World Cup was the "kind of global live event that piracy networks move quickly to exploit". The crackdown was also supported by Fifa, beIN Media Group, NBC Universal, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Warner Brothers. Fifa, which derives much of its revenue from selling broadcasting rights, and the other media entities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.