FIFA’s claims of no match-fixing alerts during the World Cup have been refuted by one of its own Integrity Task Force members, the Council of Europe.
Earlier this week, the global football governing body was quick to point out that its Integrity Task Force and its international partners have found no suspicious betting cases during the entirety of the 2026 World Cup and its 104 matches.
However, the Council of Europe has confirmed that analysis from independent match-fixing prevention body, the Copenhagen Group, has issued seven “yellow” notices and analysed 12 “major controversies” relating to integrity risks throughout the tournament.
Both the Council of Europe and the Copenhagen Group are members of FIFA’s Integrity Task Force.
It is unclear why there’s a mismatch between FIFA’s official statement and that of the Copenhagen Group, but it was almost a given that suspicious betting would take place at some point just judging off the record-setting betting volume that this year’s World Cup edition saw.
French regulator ANJ reported several broken records for online sports betting, including:
- More than €1.3bn staked and €157m in GGR, both more than double the numbers from the 2022 World Cup (€597m in stakes and €70m in GGR);
- 3.8 million active accounts that placed around 113 million bets throughout the World Cup, 40% more than the 2022 edition (2.6 million accounts and 54 million bets);
- The semi-final between France and Spain became the most bet-on WC game since 2010, attracting €63m in bets, even more than the €51m in bets during the France/Argentina final in 2022.
Back to the Copenhagen Group, the organisation supplied comprehensive and continuous monitoring of prediction markets for the first time in its history. By doing so, it constituted major issues that could arise from the ability to anonymously wager on these platforms, coupled with the ease of crypto payments.
Sports news outlet The Athletic quoted sources close to the report, highlighting that Polymarket in particular, one of the two biggest prediction markets in the world, opened up a market “Will Folarin Balogun play against Belgium?” on the same day that the US player got sent off during a game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Balogun’s availability to play against Belgium was confirmed by FIFA on 5 July, three days after the possibility appeared on Polymarket. According to the sources quoted by The Athletic, no other such markets were opened for the other 14 players that received a red card during the World Cup.
An official response from FIFA to the Copenhagen Group’s report is still pending.
