The football ended in July. FIFA’s homework on what happened in the comments has just landed, and it’s not pretty reading.

FIFA’s Social Media Protection Service (SMPS), run with the firm Signify Group, has published its full tournament report on abuse aimed at players, coaches and referees during the 2026 men’s World Cup. FIFA released it on October 9, the eve of World Mental Health Day (FIFA). PinkNews picked out the detail that matters most to us: which team got the most homophobic abuse.

We read the report itself. Here’s what it actually says.

The short version

  • The scale: From June 9 to July 20, the SMPS analysed more than 17.1 million posts and comments on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. 477,217 were flagged by its AI for human review, and 240,676 were verified as abusive, aimed at 812 people.
  • Homophobia: It was 4% of all verified abuse. Strip out general insults (“you’re useless”, swearing) and look only at the targeted hate, and homophobia was 7%.
  • France: The French players were the most abused team overall, with over 18,000 abusive instances, and “the nation targeted with the highest volumes of Homophobia.”
  • One player: The single most targeted individual, a player FIFA doesn’t name, received over 10,000 abusive messages and was also the leading target of homophobia, sexism and transphobia.

How homophobia showed up

The report lumps a lot of abuse into “General Abuse” (43% of the total), mostly fans raging at performances and results. Racism was the second-biggest category at 12%.

When the report removes general abuse to focus on targeted hate, the picture sharpens: racism 20%, corruption allegations 15%, violence 14%, xenophobia 12%, homophobia 7% and sexual abuse 5%. The report calls homophobia and sexual abuse “two other prominent forms of abuse,” including “homophobic slurs and sexualised language often used to insult or taunt individuals.”

That’s the part worth sitting with. Most of the players on the receiving end aren’t out, and many of them presumably aren’t gay. Homophobic slurs get used as the all-purpose insult anyway. For queer fans scrolling the same replies, and for any player who might one day want to come out, the message lands regardless of who it was aimed at.

France, and the player at the centre of it

France sat at the top of the “total abuse by team” chart, ahead of England, Portugal and Argentina. According to the report, racism (33%) was the joint largest category of abuse aimed at French players, alongside general abuse, and France also drew the highest volume of homophobia of any nation.

The most targeted person at the whole tournament was a player whose abuse was 40% racist. The report says targeting rose sharply after a public figure’s racist remarks about the player were shared widely. The same player was also the leading target of homophobia, sexism and transphobia. It’s a familiar pattern: hate rarely comes in just one flavour.

The comments you never saw

The SMPS also ran moderation on FIFA’s own channels and those of the teams. Out of 60.7 million comments reviewed, 9.2 million (15%) were hidden before the wider public saw them. FIFA estimates that prevented around 920 million exposures to abusive or fraudulent comments.

Among the toxic comments that were hidden, 7.8% were tagged as homophobic, behind personal attacks (55.8%), racism (18.5%) and sexual references (12.8%).

Did anyone face consequences?

Some did, or might. The report says:

  • 2,905 accounts met the threshold for potential investigation.
  • 786 were referred to law enforcement.
  • 87 deep-dive investigations produced 30 accounts positively identified for action.
  • All abusive posts were reported to the platforms.

X was where the most abuse was detected, while TikTok had the lowest volumes. Meta removed over 5,000 comments in cooperation with the SMPS, the report says.

Referees had it worst at the extreme end: they were the target of 71% of the most threatening cases and doxxing incidents, despite making up 10% of the people monitored.

Why this matters beyond football

FIFA’s own statutes ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the report quotes Article 4 to say so. Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s president, said “we need to unite to tackle this abhorrent behaviour that causes distress and affects emotional well-being” (FIFA).

The report’s recommendations focus on protecting referees from doxxing, offering players direct-message protection as standard, tackling abuse from angry gamblers and tracking AI-generated abuse images. It says learnings will go to FIFA’s human rights team to inform its anti-discrimination work. It doesn’t set out anything specific on homophobia, which, at 7% of targeted hate across a global tournament, might deserve its own line next time.

There’s a mental health side too. The report notes online abuse can contribute to anxiety, depression and panic attacks. If football Twitter is getting to you, you’re allowed to mute, block and log off. FIFA’s release points to Befrienders Worldwide and Find a Helpline for anyone who needs to talk to someone.

Sources: FIFA SMPS, FIFA World Cup 2026 Full Tournament Report (Oct 2026); FIFA media release (Oct 9, 2026); PinkNews (Oct 16, 2026). Photo: Emerson Vieira / Unsplash.