US Takes Down 1,000+ Sites Streaming the 2026 World Cup for Free
Operation Offsides and Operation Red Card blocked nearly 3,000 domains and arrested four suspected pirates in Colombia, with FIFA, Warner Bros and NBCUniversal feeding the leads.
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.
The U.S. Justice Department said this week it 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. The news was first reported by BleepingComputer.
The leads came from a coalition of the sport's biggest names. FIFA, football's global governing body, sat alongside the Motion Picture Association's Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, beIN Media Group, NBCUniversal, the UFC and Warner Bros. All of them hand pirate URLs to investigators.
How does this affect ordinary fans?
If you clicked on a free stream, you were probably not just watching football. You were also handing your device to whoever ran the site.
That is the message from Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Eric Weindorf, who warned that illegal streamers often bundle in malware, meaning malicious software that quietly installs on your computer or phone. Many of the sites also run over insecure connections, which lets attackers snoop on passwords and card numbers typed into the same browser.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva put it simply: the operation is about protecting copyright and protecting viewers from the junk 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. 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, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Peru blocked hundreds of illegal streaming sites. A second phase launched in Colombia on July 10, and led to the arrest of four people said to belong to a cybercriminal crew calling itself Los Ciberinfiltrados. Prosecutors say the group has been breaking into telecoms systems and reselling pirated feeds since at least 2024.
IPR Center director Ivan J. Arvelo said the unauthorised broadcasts do not 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 popping up ahead of the 2026 tournament. They sold counterfeit tickets and hospitality packages, harvested card details, and pushed follow-on scams by email and text. A fan looking for a bargain often ended up on a fraud site dressed in official-looking colours.
The scale is enormous. In June, Mexican authorities shut 44 domains tied to the PirloTV piracy ring. Those sites alone pulled in more than 950 million visits a year, with around 230 million coming from Mexico.
What should fans do?
Stick to broadcasters and streaming services you already pay for, or the ones FIFA lists on its own website. If a match is "free" on a site you have never heard of, assume the price is your data.
Check the web address in the bar before you type card details anywhere claiming to sell tickets. Look for the official fifa.com domain, not a lookalike with extra words. And if you have already bought a suspicious ticket, call your bank and cancel the card. Do it today, not after the opening whistle.
