Europe rights body urges Fifa to strengthen integrity of football ahead of 2030

The 2026 World Cup has been tainted by political pressure, racist abuse of players and the opening up to betting markets which paves the way to fraud, the Council's secretary general Alain Berset said Sunday.

A Swiss politician, who was twice a president of FIFA's home country Switzerland, Berset addressed an open letter to its formal working partner Fifa just hours before Sunday's final between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Spain went on to beat Argentina 1-0.

"The FIFA World Cup 2026 has raised question after question," he said. "The celebration will end tonight. The questions will not."

“The next crisis has already begun. It has two names: money and power,” Berset said.

He described US President Donald Trump's call to Fifa boss Gianni Infantino to ask him to review the World Cup suspension of US striker Folarin Balogun as “a sanction suspended under pressure, within days, with no reasons given".

"Political influence has also moved onto the field," he noted. "When the rules bend under pressure, every result is open to doubt."

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Betting 'opens door to fraud'

He also questioned FIFA's decision to for the first time have a prediction market – ADI Predictstreet – as an official partner withintense betting on every facet of the game.

The deal, reportedly worth $150 million, was signed one week after the Abu Dhabi-backed company was formally created.

FIFA also sealed other commercial deals with the gambling industry for this World Cup.

"Betting has moved from the result of a match to moments a single player can produce without changing the score," Berset noted.

"It is an open door to fraud. And this World Cup has opened the door wider," he said.

This year's World Cup was held in the US, Canada and Mexico. The next men's tournament will be staged mostly in Europe, with Morocco also co-hosting.

Three South American neighbors, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, are currently scheduled to host one game each at the start of the centenary edition in June 2030 to mark the original 1930 World Cup host Uruguay.

“So here is my proposal to Fifa,” Berset wrote. “A working dialogue that starts tonight, to build the integrity framework of the 2030 World Cup before it is played.”

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Mission to promote democracy and rule of law

The Council of Europe (CoE) aired its concerns publicly despite having a formal working agreement with FIFA signed by its president Infantino in 2018.

The inter-governmental body, which created the European Convention on Human Rights, has a stated mission: “To promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law across Europe and beyond".

When signing the Fifa-CoE memorandum of understanding eight years ago, Infantino said: “It is a natural relationship, as we share common values and goals: transparency, accountability, integrity, safety in sport and respect for human rights, for children's rights.”

In the 1980s, the now 46-member council drew up a treaty to keep football fans safe and has also created an anti-doping convention as well as an accord against match-fixing.

It is not part of the the European Union and includes several European key states such as the UK who are not members of the bloc.

(with newswires)