- Broadcasters in France, Spain have lodged a formal complaint with FIFA
- The rights holders called the partnership with ExpressVPN a “disaster”
- ExpressVPN has previously refused to implement comprehensive anti-piracy blocking
FIFA’s decision to partner with ExpressVPN for the 2026 World Cup has sparked outrage among top European soccer broadcasters.
La Liga and French media giants including LFP Media and Canal+ have formally lodged a complaint with football’s governing body, slamming the new sponsorship as a “disastrous” message to football’s ecosystem, according to reports from French sports newspaper L’Equipe.
“La Liga believes that this agreement is manifestly incompatible with the principles of the protection of football’s audiovisual rights, which should guide the actions of world football’s governing body,” La Liga president Javier Tebas said.
Rights holders are furious that FIFA would accept sponsorship money from a company they previously targeted with lawsuits for “facilitating access to pirated content,” Tebas added.
In a statement to TechRadar, an ExpressVPN spokesperson vehemently denies such claims.
“Any suggestion that ExpressVPN has been ‘found guilty’ of facilitating piracy is completely inaccurate; we have not been convicted of such conduct in any jurisdiction,” the company told us.
While it reiterates that a virtual private network (VPN) is a privacy and security tool – “not a loophole for illegal activities” – ExpressVPN also argues that it has already presented a framework to national and EU authorities to tackle the illegal distribution of copyrighted content without breaking its no-logs VPN commitment.
For ordinary soccer fans and privacy advocates, this corporate clash highlights the growing tension between rights holders who want total control over Internet traffic and privacy companies who defend open, unrestricted access.
If you want to secure your digital footprint, it’s crucial to use the best VPN to bypass unreasonable network restrictions and ensure your online activity isn’t monitored by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or third-party organizations.
A clash between privacy and anti-piracy
In France, organizations such as the Association for the Protection of Sports Programs (APPS) have aggressively pursued court orders forcing ISPs and technology companies to block access to pirated streams.
ExpressVPN has historically resisted these demands and refused to implement network-wide blocks. This staunch defense of an open internet led to the VPN provider being formally condemned in the country, making FIFA’s sponsorship declaration a bitter pill for French broadcasters to swallow.
The situation has escalated accordingly in Spain, where La Liga’s president has led a controversial crusade against illegal streaming. La Liga’s heavy-handed tactics have been heavily criticized by digital rights groups, particularly after a recent anti-piracy campaign backfired spectacularly, falsely blocking over 500,000 legitimate websites in Spain.
The Spanish league has also tried in the past to fine individual users and pressure technology platforms to hand over user data. With La Liga’s war on piracy breaking the internet in Spain, privacy experts have warned that your VPN could be the next target.
Despite the enormous legal pressure and the recent formal complaint to FIFA, top VPN providers have consistently argued that enforcing rights holder site blocking fundamentally compromises the security and architecture of a privacy service.
In fact, NordVPN recently won a decisive legal battle in Spain over La Liga piracy fines, establishing a major victory for user privacy against copyright holders.
Meanwhile, the climate in France remains incredibly hostile to privacy tools.
Earlier this year, a French court backed the LFP and ordered top VPNs to block illegal soccer streams. This sweeping injunction set a dangerous precedent, forcing the VPN industry to respond to France’s aggressive order to block illegal streaming sites and defend the technical realities of zero-logs infrastructure.
