The Council of Europe has launched a sharp public attack on FIFA, demanding stronger integrity measures following a deeply controversial 2026 World Cup in the United States.
Alain Berset, the Swiss politician heading the 46-nation Council of Europe, wrote an open letter to FIFA just hours before the final between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The letter warned that the tournament had raised “question after question” and that the governing body must urgently address a growing crisis threatening football’s credibility.
Berset declared bluntly in the letter: “The next crisis has already begun. It has two names: money and power.”
Among the most serious concerns raised was FIFA’s decision to suspend a ban on United States forward Folarin Balogun following reported pressure from US President Donald Trump.
The suspension allowed Balogun to play against Belgium in a quarter-final fixture, a match that Belgium ultimately won 4-1, raising immediate questions about the integrity of tournament selection rules.
Berset wrote that “when the rules bend under pressure, every result is open to doubt,” reflecting deep concern about political interference in football governance at the highest level.
The letter also flagged the controversial decision by FIFA to sign a prediction market company as an official World Cup sponsor, a move Berset described as a serious risk to the sport’s integrity.
Prediction betting was criticised heavily throughout the tournament, with Berset noting it allowed wagers to be placed on “every pass, every card, every corner” during the first 48-team, 104-game World Cup in history.
Berset warned that prediction betting had been “criticized as rewarding insider trading” and that in football it enabled wagers to be won on “moments a single player can produce without changing the score.”
He called prediction markets “an open door to fraud,” adding that “this World Cup has opened the door wider” with the sheer volume and variety of in-play betting markets available throughout the tournament.
Additional concerns raised in the letter included racist abuse directed at players, some of it from elected officials, as well as widespread questioning of the authority of referees across multiple matches.
Berset called for “a working dialogue that starts tonight, to build the integrity framework of the 2030 World Cup before it is played,” treating the issue as genuinely urgent rather than a post-tournament review matter.
The Council of Europe has a long history of shaping sports governance frameworks, having created a football fan safety treaty in the 1980s, an anti-doping convention, and a landmark accord against match-fixing known as the Macolin Convention.
The 2030 men’s World Cup is set to be largely staged across Europe, with Morocco co-hosting, plus individual matches in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay to mark the centenary of the original 1930 tournament.
