- French and Spanish broadcasters have filed an official complaint with FIFA
- Rights holders described the partnership with ExpressVPN as “disastrous”
- ExpressVPN previously refused to implement sweeping anti-hack blocking
FIFA’s decision to partner with ExpressVPN for the 2026 World Cup has sparked outrage among Europe’s leading soccer broadcasters.
La Liga and French media giants including LFP Media and Canal+ have officially filed a complaint with football’s governing body, calling the new sponsorship a “disastrous” message for the football ecosystem, according to reports from French sports newspaper L’Equipe.
“La Liga considers that this agreement is manifestly incompatible with the principles of protection of football audiovisual rights which must govern the actions of the governing body of world football,” said La Liga president Javier Tebas.
Rights holders are furious that FIFA is accepting sponsorship money from a company they had previously targeted in legal action for “facilitating access to pirated content”, Tebas added.
In a statement to TechRadar, an ExpressVPN spokesperson strongly denies such allegations.
“Any suggestion that ExpressVPN has been ‘found guilty’ of facilitating piracy is completely inaccurate; we have not been found guilty of such behavior in any jurisdiction,” the company told us.
While reiterating that a virtual private network (VPN) is a privacy and security tool – “and not a loophole for illegal activities” – ExpressVPN also claims that it has already presented a framework to national and European authorities to combat the illegal distribution of copyrighted content, without breaking its no-logs VPN commitment.
For everyday soccer fans and privacy advocates, this corporate conflict highlights the growing tension between rights holders who want complete control over Internet traffic and privacy companies who advocate for open, unrestricted access.
If you’re looking to secure your digital footprint, using the best VPN is essential to bypass unfair network restrictions and ensure that your online activity is not monitored by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or third-party organizations.
A clash between confidentiality and anti-piracy
In France, organizations like 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, refusing to implement network-wide blocks. This staunch defense of an open internet led to the formal condemnation of the VPN provider in the country, making the FIFA sponsorship announcement a bitter pill to swallow for French broadcasters.
The situation has also worsened 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, wrongly blocking more than 500,000 legitimate websites in Spain.
The Spanish league has also previously attempted to fine individual users and pressure tech platforms to hand over user data. As La Liga’s war on piracy breaks the internet in Spain, privacy experts have warned that your VPN could be the next target.
Despite immense legal pressure and the latest formal complaint filed with FIFA, major VPN providers have consistently maintained that the enforcement of site blocks by rights holders fundamentally undermines the security and architecture of a privacy service.
In fact, NordVPN recently won a crucial legal battle in Spain over La Liga piracy fines, constituting 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.
