The FIFA World Cup: Safety comms under pressure

Through no fault of my own, I have watched a lot of FIFA World Cup games in my time. It’s fairly unavoidable: a recent Ipsos survey found that almost three in five people in Great Britain plan to watch the World Cup this year, with Gen Z men cited as the most probable spectators.

This year poses some specific challenges when it comes to safety. Firstly, the time difference between the UK and North America means that a lot of games will be screened late at night. This significantly increases risk: higher levels of alcohol consumption, fatigue, travel constraints, reduced staffing levels, darker streets etc.

Secondly, this is the largest tournament to-date. The 2026 World Cup features 48 teams and 104 matches, nearly two-thirds more games than in 2018 and 2022. What does that mean? It means huge audiences and billions more in revenue. The BBC and ITV have rights to the coverage, which also ensures wide access without paywalls.

Finally, forecasting is more complex; the last World Cup in 2022 was hosted in Qatar in the run-up to Christmas, which conflates much of the relevant safety data. As a result, the most comparable summer data comes from the World Cup in Russia, almost a decade ago.

This builds a worrying picture for those invested in safety. The 2018 World Cup saw a “significant rise” in domestic abuse reports in England and Wales. The National Centre for Domestic Violence reported a 25% rise in domestic abuse cases on days when England played. Police also recorded “record numbers” of general incidents, even when England was performing well.

Police typically see increases in assaults and public order incidents linked to large-scale sporting events, particularly during evening and late-night screenings. On top of this, we know that drink and drug driving (alongside enforcement activity) increases in the summertime. Some sources indicate that there are more drink and drug driving arrests made during the summer months than there are during the Christmas period. All of this adds up to significant additional pressure on police, ambulance and emergency services, particularly overnight.

What can we do? While these risks cannot be eliminated entirely, they can be lessened through effective behaviour-change communications. We have recently published our Six Principles for Safety Comms, which are highly relevant to this challenge.

1. SMUGGLE THE SAFETY. Safety is boring. We must deliver our message through things people want, like enjoyment or belonging to a wider collective of football fans.
2. PRIME BEFORE PANIC. If we want people to act safely under stress, we must cue them in calm moments and not rely solely on ‘point of sale’ comms in bars and pubs.
3. BUILD INSTINCTS NOT INSTRUCTIONS. People act when they feel able. We must equip people with tools, skills or words that they trust and might use in a difficult moment.
4. STRENGTHEN THE SUPPORT SYSTEM. Bystanders can be powerful triggers for safer behaviour, if they’re equipped and empowered to act. This is especially relevant to high-profile sporting events that are often viewed in group settings.
5. FIGHT THE FEAR. Fear might capture attention, but it rarely changes behaviour in isolation. Comms that rely solely on shock or worst-case outcomes risk being ignored or actively resisted.
6. STOP SAYING STOP. We must meet our audience where they are. Instead of expecting perfection, we must design for real-world behaviours and think carefully about how people view the games and what they do before and afterwards.

The World Cup isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the scale of the risk that comes with it. While these challenges can’t be eliminated, they can be mitigated. By applying behaviour-change principles that reflect how people actually watch, celebrate and travel during the tournament, safety comms can play a meaningful role in reducing harm and easing pressure on frontline services.