Thousands of websites taken down for illegal World Cup streams

Almost 3,000 websites have been blocked or seized for illegally streaming World Cup matches, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has said.

More than 1,000 domains were shut down in the US alone during the tournament, with a similar number blocked in Colombia.

The DOJ said at the end of last month it had taken down 400 webpages over illegal World Cup streaming. Now hundreds more have been taken down or blocked.

"The sustained effort to seize more than a thousand domains dedicated to illegally streaming the World Cup confirms the administration's commitment to intellectual property rights and to the success of the 2026 FIFA World Cup," said the DOJ's assistant attorney general A. Tysen Duva.

The illegal streaming of sports often happens through webpages or websites created specifically for the event. Companies and broadcasters have estimated the activity costs them billions of dollars a year.

Due to its global popularity, football has been found to be pirated at an "industrial scale", according to analysts. The increasing cost of rights deals for matches has resulted in higher prices for fans at home, especially if they choose to pay for multiple services to watch their team play.

Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which aims to combat digital piracy and helped in the police effort, said on Monday that the World Cup was the "kind of global live event that piracy networks move quickly to exploit".

Much of Fifa's revenue comes from the sale of broadcasting rights to the various global media networks that want to televise matches.

The Colombian Attorney General's Office said it had even made several arrests in connection with the operations.

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