The DOJ is cracking down on illegal World Cup streams in Operation Offsides

As World Cup matches continue across North America, U.S. officials are targeting one of the tournament’s biggest unofficial channels: illegal streams.

On Friday, June 26, the Department of Justice announced that it had seized nearly 400 internet domains that were allegedly being used to illegally stream FIFA World Cup matches in real-time, which, according to the DOJ, is in violation of U.S. copyright law.

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The seizures were part of "Operation Offsides," an international enforcement effort led by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center with help from Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. prosecutors, foreign law enforcement partners, FIFA, and several major media companies (NBCUniversal, Warner Bros., and the UFC, to name a few).

So if someone clicks on one of the seized domains now, they will not see a World Cup stream; they will see a law enforcement notice explaining that the site has been taken offline — “THIS SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED,” to be specific.

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The operation also extends outside the U.S. The DOJ said law enforcement actions were coordinated through the International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Network of U.S. prosecutors, with servers and domains linked to illegal World Cup streams targeted in Peru and Bulgaria. Additional disruption efforts took place in Croatia, Romania, Poland, and Colombia.

In the statement, Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva added the DOJ seized the domains to disrupt international networks “that profit from the global popularity of the World Cup.” The department also framed the action as part of the United States’ responsibility as one of the tournament’s host nations, along with Canada and Mexico, to protect the event from illegal activity.

The DOJ’s argument was not only about copyright; officials also warned that illegal streaming sites can put viewers at "significant risk."

That warning is a big part of the government’s case against illegal sports streams. DOJ officials say unauthorized streaming sites can expose viewers to malware attacks and unsecured connections that may compromise personal or financial data. The risk is not just theoretical: a 2022 report from the U.K.-based anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) found malicious content on all 50 illegal sports streaming sites it analyzed, including scam ads, banking trojans, and explicit pop-ups. Viewers also face deceptive ads, scams, and extensive tracking.

So while an illegal stream may look like a quick workaround when a match is hard to find, the malware is—apparently—not optional.

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Friday's crackdown also lands in the middle of a much larger sports piracy fight. Just days before the DOJ announced the World Cup domain seizures, ACE, UEFA, UC3, and Mexican authorities said they had disrupted 44 domains linked to PirloTV, a major illegal sports streaming network focused largely on live soccer. Those domains generated more than 950 million visits worldwide each year, including about 230 million visits from Mexico alone.

After the PirloTV-linked domains were disrupted, new domains quickly appeared again. It's basically a version of pirate-wack-a-mole.

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There is a reason watching illegal sports streams is so popular right now. Sports broadcasting rights are increasingly split across traditional broadcasters, streaming apps, cable packages, and geographic markets. For fans, especially during a global event like the World Cup, figuring out where to watch every match can be confusing and expensive. Some even say the quality is better on illegal sites.

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Rights holders, meanwhile, argue that piracy pulls viewers away from licensed broadcasts, advertisers, and platforms that paid a ton of money for the rights to show the games.

Risks around the tournament go beyond illegal streams. On May 27, the FBI had warned fans about fake FIFA websites created ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Those spoofed sites were designed to impersonate FIFA and could be used to sell fake tickets or hospitality packages, collect personal information, and facilitate financial scams. Taken together, the warnings show how quickly the online ecosystem around a major tournament has been risky,

For now, hundreds of those World Cup streaming domains are offline. But sports piracy has a long history of moving from one domain to the next, especially during events with massive global demand. The latest seizure is a major enforcement action, but it is probably not the final whistle.