Domestic abuse reports reach record UK highs during 2026 World Cup

Domestic abuse reports reached record highs in the UK during the 2026 World Cup, figures have shown.In total, 384 domestic violence incidents were reported during the tournament - representing 17 per cent of the 2,322 incidents reported.Ninety-three per cent occurred around England's matches and only Euro 2020 (held in 2021) recorded more.The rise has been described as a worrying increase, with alcohol once again viewed as the lead contributing factor."The vast majority of it [incidents] we'd say were alcohol related and that's a real concern," Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the Football Policing National Lead in charge of policing football in the UK, told Sky Sports News."Increases in domestic abuse, increases in incidents around licensed premises. I think that's the thing that we've seen in a number of tournaments now and that's really going to be a focus for us as we go forward planning future tournaments."The change of licensing hours just 48 hours before the kick-off of the Mexico vs England game was a particular cause for concern."We knew the fixtures from December," Roberts added. "It was pretty straightforward to map out the routes and potential hinge points with the engagements with Mexico and I just think that particular example where the licensing laws were extended in effect on the Friday before a fixture on the Sunday, that doesn't give us any chance to re-roster officers."Yes we accept the difficulties, but for myself, I made our representations to the government to say: 'Look, there's a perfectly adequate system here. We've got plenty of notices before fixtures, stick with the system'."Places can make an application if they're well run and no doubt they'll get the extension that they're after, but it just meant we couldn't limit it in particular areas so I think that was frustrating. If you know a fixture is potentially going to happen for seven months, we've got to do better than changing the law 48 hours before a game."Second-highest levels of online...