World Cup FIFA captains to swap pennants denouncing hate

June 18 (Reuters) - Captains at Thursday’s World Cup fixtures will exchange special pennants denouncing discrimination to mark the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, as FIFA revealed it has blocked hundreds of thousands of abusive posts during the tournament.

The pre-match exchange will feature in all four of the day’s fixtures: Czech Republic against South Africa, Mexico against South Korea, Switzerland against Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Canada against Qatar. Organisers confirmed the pennants will bear the slogan “We Play Together. We Stand Against Hate,” written in English on one side and the teams’ native languages on the reverse.

The initiative comes as football’s world governing body battles escalating online abuse. FIFA reported that its automated social media protection service, launched ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, has removed more than 30 million abusive posts and comments to date.

Since June 11, the service has deleted 388,000 harmful posts at the 2026 tournament, already eclipsing the 287,000 removals recorded across the entire 2022 event.

Officials added that further anti-discrimination campaigns and stadium activations are scheduled to run throughout Thursday's match schedule.

The anti-hate campaign arrives amid fresh legal developments for one of the co-hosts relating to discriminatory fan conduct.

Earlier this month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld FIFA fines imposed on the Mexican Football Federation over the use of a homophobic chant by supporters, though it overturned a partial stadium closure ordered in one of the disciplinary cases.

FIFA's anti-discrimination monitoring system reported the chant during friendlies against Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil in the summer of 2024, with two of those matches temporarily suspended.

Mexico have repeatedly faced sanctions from FIFA and CONCACAF over the chant, which is typically directed at opposing goalkeepers during goal kicks.