European rights body urges FIFA to strengthen football integrity

The Council of Europe on Sunday called on FIFA to strengthen safeguards protecting the integrity of football, arguing that the 2026 World Cup had exposed serious concerns ranging from political interference and racist abuse to the growing influence of sports betting.

The pan-European rights organisation said the tournament, which concludes later on Sunday with Argentina facing Spain in the final, had raised troubling questions about the governance of the global game.

"The FIFA World Cup 2026 has raised question after question," Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset said in a statement. "The celebration will end tonight. The questions will not."

Berset urged FIFA to begin immediate discussions on reforms ahead of the 2030 World Cup, saying there must be "a working dialogue that starts tonight, to build the integrity framework of the 2030 World Cup before it is played."

He pointed to what he described as political interference after US President Donald Trump publicly urged FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review the tournament suspension of US striker Folarin Balogun.

"Political influence has also moved onto the field," Berset said. "When the rules bend under pressure, every result is open to doubt."

Berset also criticised FIFA's decision to appoint prediction market platform ADI Predictstreet as an official World Cup partner, warning that expanding betting markets to cover individual in-game events increases the risk of manipulation.

"Betting has moved from the result of a match to moments a single player can produce without changing the score," he said. "It is an open door to fraud. And this World Cup has opened the door wider."

The Council of Europe, which now has 46 member states, has long played a role in promoting integrity in sport. It developed a convention on spectator safety in football during the 1980s and has since introduced international agreements on anti-doping and the prevention of match-fixing.

"Tonight, the final whistle will end the tournament. Let it also open the third half and the urgent work of strengthening the integrity of sport," Berset said.

The Council of Europe is separate from the European Union and includes several major European countries, including the United Kingdom, that are not members of the EU.