US Takes Down 1,000+ Sites Streaming the 2026 World Cup for Free

Key points

• The U.S. Justice Department seized more than 1,000 websites and blocked 1,970 domains streaming FIFA World Cup 2026 matches without permission.
• The takedowns came under Operation Offsides, which involves 14 partner agencies across 54 countries.
• A parallel effort, Operation Red Card, hit sites across Latin America and led to four arrests in Colombia on July 10.
• FIFA, the Motion Picture Association, beIN Media Group, NBCUniversal, UFC and Warner Bros. All supplied leads to investigators.
• The FBI warned in May that fake FIFA ticket sites were also stealing card details from fans.

American prosecutors have pulled the plug on the biggest wave of World Cup piracy sites yet.

BleepingComputer first reported that the U.S. Justice Department has seized over 1,000 websites and blocked another 1,970 domains that were streaming, or planning to stream, matches from the 2026 tournament without a licence. Leads came from FIFA, the Motion Picture Association's Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, beIN Media Group, NBCUniversal, UFC and Warner Bros. All of them handed pirate URLs to investigators.

How does this affect ordinary fans?

If you clicked on a free stream, you weren't just watching football. You were handing your device to whoever ran the site.

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Eric Weindorf warned that illegal streamers often bundle malware, meaning malicious software that installs quietly on your computer or phone. Many sites also run over insecure connections, letting attackers snoop on passwords and card numbers typed into the same browser. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said the operation is about protecting copyright and shielding viewers from the threats hidden inside the streams.

Who ran the operation?

The takedowns are branded Operation Offsides, led by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (the IPR Center) with Homeland Security Investigations Washington. Fourteen partner agencies across 54 countries took part, and by the end of last month the group had already grabbed nearly 400 domains. The latest sweep pushes the total past a thousand.

A companion effort, Operation Red Card, focused on Latin America. Police in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic blocked hundreds of illegal streaming sites. A second phase launched in Colombia on July 10 and led to four arrests: members of a cybercriminal crew calling itself Los Ciberinfiltrados, charged with breaking into telecoms systems and reselling pirated feeds since at least 2024.

IPR Center director Ivan J. Arvelo said the unauthorised broadcasts don't just break copyright law. They also fund organised crime.

Why is piracy such a security story?

Because the same criminals who resell a match usually resell your data too.

In May the FBI warned that fake websites impersonating FIFA were appearing ahead of the 2026 tournament, selling counterfeit tickets, harvesting card details and pushing follow-on scams by email and text. We reported on the pre-staged fraud infrastructure behind those sites on 30 June, after researchers documented phishing kits and lookalike domains built well before the June 11 opening match.

The scale of piracy itself is striking. In June, Mexican authorities shut 44 domains tied to the PirloTV ring, which pulled in more than 950 million visits a year, around 230 million from Mexico alone.

What should fans do?

Stick to broadcasters you already pay for, or the ones FIFA lists on its own website. If a match is free on a site you've never heard of, assume the price is your data.

Check the address bar before you type card details anywhere claiming to sell tickets. Look for the official fifa.com domain, not a lookalike with extra words. If you've already bought a suspicious ticket, call your bank and cancel the card now.