Violence against women is not part of the game is the campaign launched by networks of shelters for women victims of violence in Mexico, the United States, and Canada just a couple of weeks before the World Cup begins. The call, led from Mexico by the National Network of Shelters (RNC), responds to the widely documented increases in various forms of violence — assaults within homes, sexual violence, harassment, sexual exploitation, and trafficking of women and girls — that occur during major sporting events. UN Women and UNICEF have estimated that during these tournaments, calls to emergency lines for domestic violence spike by up to 30%. The RNR also reminds that the three host cities in Mexico already have high rates of violence against women. “Football does not generate violence against women; that violence already exists and in certain contexts can increase risks or intensify preexisting dynamics,” says Wendy Figueroa, director of the network.
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“While the 2026 World Cup is promoted as a symbol of international pride, tourism, and economic development, violence against women continues to be absent from much of the public conversation,” says RNR in a statement. Figueroa insists that two of the situations that worsen the violence situation are high alcohol consumption, but also prolonged home office. The coronavirus pandemic in Mexico already showed that many women were locked in and isolated with their abusers without real opportunities for support, accompaniment, or escape. The RNR documented that during that confinement period, violence events increased by more than 56%. And from March 2025 to March 2026, domestic violence increased by an average of 15%, with the three World Cup host cities among those with the highest rates.
Specialists, international organizations, and studies conducted in several countries explain that the excitement, frustration, and anger over defeat or the euphoria over victory become reasons why men assault the women around them when their team loses or wins. For the RNR, violence does not start when a match begins. The campaign undertaken in partnership with Women’s Shelters Canada and the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNDE) in the United States includes three stages: before, during, and after the World Cup. To prevent, monitor, but also ensure that, for example, foreign women in Mexico are not victims of other crimes even after the tournament ends. Attention and support will be provided to any woman who requests it, regardless of her nationality or origin.
Football, alcohol, and violence
The reality of the figures precedes and confirms it. In November 2022, Luciana Etcheverry and Natalia Tosi published a study for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) titled At the Football World Cup, no matter who wins, women lose. The text details that in Latin America, cases of intimate partner violence increase when there are football matches. For example, in Brazil, reports of threats against women increased by 23.7% on match days in the Brazilian Football Competition from 2015 to 2018. Reports of injury grew by 25.9% when teams played in their own cities, with partners and ex-partners being the main aggressors. “Similar numbers were reported in other countries in the region, with increases of up to 30% in reports,” they note.
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Other scenarios analyzed were the football tournaments of 2002, 2006, and 2010 in England, when a 26% increase in violence cases was recorded on days of draws or victories, surpassed by a 38% increase on days of defeat. Additionally, a study in the United States published in 2011 estimated that intimate partner violence rose by an average of 10% on days and in cities where their American football teams unexpectedly lost. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Mexico reported in a statement published last November 25 about an alliance with the embassies of Canada and the United Kingdom to prevent gender-based violence against women and girls ahead of the World Cup.
This violence is also driven by high alcohol consumption during sporting events. The Alcohol Action Network (RASA) has documented this and denounced the urgency of creating a fiscal policy on alcohol consumption in Mexico. “While the industry maximizes its profits, Mexican society absorbs the costs of the damage,” they assert. According to RASA, one in three women who suffered aggression by their partner say that he had consumed alcohol. They also point out that in one in three cases of child abuse, the aggressor was under the influence of alcohol.
In an interview with this newspaper, Ingrid Gómez Saracibar, Undersecretary for the Right to a Life Free of Violence at the Secretariat for Women, reveals that her department has been working with the Secretariat of the Interior on the issue of trafficking of women, girls, and boys in the context of the World Cup, and that since January they have trained officials and agents who will be on the ground during the World Cup to ensure that spaces are safe and free of violence for women. She also reported that they are about to launch a campaign aimed at preventing this type of violence. “Football should not be violent,” she insists. “It is important to do great work on cultural change. Traditional masculinities do not do men any good. Violent responses only break and destructure families and human beings.”
