ISIS encouraging 'mass casualty' terror attacks at FIFA World Cup 2026
ISIS is encouraging its followers to target the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the USA for “mass casualty” terror attacks, LBC has discovered.
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The terror group publishes a monthly ‘magazine' which sets out its priorities for attacking the West - and has named the world’s most popular sports tournament as one of its main targets.
A former UK counter terror chief says security services in the UK, across Europe and in the US have been monitoring ISIS propaganda and are prepared for “lone actor” attacks at stadiums scheduled to host World Cup matches.
The warning comes as tens of thousands of British football fans prepare to travel to the US in three months' time, when the tournament kicks off in June.
Neil Basu, former head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, told LBC: “This is straight out of the ISIS playbook.
"They have a monthly magazine, effectively, which talks about methodology, who you should attack, how you should attack them, when you should attack them, and it gives tips and tricks for doing that.
“By the way, if anyone wants to download, then good luck, because you will be getting a knock on the door from Counter Terrorism Policing as it is a criminal offence.
"Since 2014, since they declared war on the West, they have been routinely calling for attacks on iconic venues, or - when they change the methodology - to attack people in a crowd.
“There isn’t any counter terrorism policing professional in the western world who would not have been preparing for this, even if they hadn’t seen it."
Read more: Iran welcome in US for 2026 World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino says
England are among the favourites for FIFA World Cup 2026, and Scotland dramatically qualified for the first time since 1998.
Yesterday, Iran’s sports minister said its national football team will not play in the tournament because of the US invasion earlier this month, which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in airstrikes.
Security sources revealed that ISIS plotted to attack the FIFA World Cup tournament in Russia in 2018, and published adverts online in 2024, urging followers to target UEFA European Championships 2024 in Germany and “kill them all”.
LBC has not directly seen the ISIS magazine as it is a criminal offence to view and download, but has spoken to security sources whose job it is to monitor the terror group’s propaganda.
Counter Terrorism Policing, MI5 and MI6 routinely monitor all ISIS rhetoric online and share intelligence with their counterparts in the US, ahead of the tournament.
Extremism expert Dr Charlotte Littlewood, a former Prevent officer and Director of Research and Media at the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life, said: “Football has always been a target of ISIS.
"We saw adverts saying 'kill them all' for the European Championships last year, and there have been targets against Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, images of them with blood on their faces for the World Cup back in 2018.
“So, this is something that the security services in the UK and across the world have to be concerned about and very prepared for.
"And they are - they know that ISIS targets big crowds.
“ISIS wants to create a hostile environment where governments respond to these attacks in kind, creating the 'end of days' conflict that they want to happen and through that divide the Muslim communities from the rest of the UK citizens.
“Creating that division, which is great for their prophetic ‘end of days’ notion.”
LBC has approached Homeland Security for comment, but it did not respond.