A FIFA report has confirmed that Argentina were the most abused team on social media during the 2026 World Cup, with its Social Media Protection Service analysing over 17.1 million posts and comments across X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok from June 9 to July 20.
Following Argentina among the most targeted sides were England, Spain, Brazil and Norway, according to TyC Sports, with a significant share of the hostility aimed at head coach Lionel Scaloni centred on claims that Argentina had benefited from favourable refereeing decisions.
While Argentina topped the table for abuse directed at a team, their players ranked fourth among individually targeted athletes, behind those of France, England and Portugal, with a major share of the attacks on individuals involving racism, particularly against players of African descent.
The identity of the most harassed individual player was withheld, with the report noting that the athlete faced a barrage of racist, homophobic, misogynistic and anti-transgender abuse throughout the competition. The study was published ahead of World Mental Health Day.
The findings cut both ways for Argentina. Accounts based in the country were responsible for the highest volume of racially abusive messages sent during the tournament, meaning the country was both the main target of team abuse and the leading origin of racist messages.
The report also found that xenophobic abuse mainly targeted South Africa, Argentina and England, focusing on immigration, national identity and squad selection, while Europe accounted for the largest share of abusive attacks overall, followed by South America.
Match officials faced some of the most severe threats, with referees the main targets of doxxing, the malicious leaking of private personal information online to encourage further harassment, largely fuelled by allegations of corruption and match fixing over controversial refereeing decisions.
Of 1,606 monitored players, coaches and match officials, 812 received at least one verified abusive message, more than half of those tracked, while racially motivated attacks made up 20 per cent of all confirmed discrimination, making racism the leading category of discriminatory content.
Human moderation specialists verified 240,000 posts as strictly abusive. That led to 2,905 accounts being escalated for internal investigation, while 786 accounts were referred to global law enforcement agencies for possible criminal prosecution.