7 craziest World Cup conspiracy theories, from FIFA helping Lionel Messi to Ronaldo '99 final mystery and more

Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me.

Nothing gets the conspiratorial juices flowing like the high stakes of elite sport. Why is it always your team that falls foul of the worst calls every time?

Throw in the open, subjective nature of rules in soccer — twin factors in making the sport the most popular and most argued about across the globe — the passions of national pride and the underlying geopolitics, and the FIFA World Cup is a veritable paradise for conspiracy theorists.

Never more so than in 2026, a time when the internet has squashed so many brains so much that a tinfoil hat fits perfectly. Let's not forget that this is the tournament where a head of state from a host nation was part of a successful lobbying effort to the FIFA president to have a ban for his team's star striker suspended.

That happened. He said so. And it's hardly going to stop people from losing the run of themselves over every other presumed indiscretion against their teams.

But conspiracy theories and the World Cup have gone hand in hand for almost a century.

2026 WORLD CUP HQ: Latest World Cup news | Full World Cup schedule | Buy World Cup tickets

7 craziest World Cup conspiracy theories

7. FIFA's Messi favoritism

Imagn

Let's tackle the topic of the day head-on. After Egypt lost 3-2 to reigning champions Argentina, having been 2-0 up with 12 minutes remaining, Pharaohs boss Hossam Hassan cut loose.  "It's all about money. They want Messi to stay in the tournament," he said. "In football, many things happen off the pitch because of interests. What happened was unfair. Egypt deserved to qualify. We were the better team."

Leaving aside the obvious riposte along the lines of 'take care of your business and don't concede three goals in a flash of panic', let's look at some of Hassan's complaints.

The foul on Lisandro Martinez that saw Egypt's original second goal ruled out after a VAR review happened deep in the North African side's half. However, it was a lightning counter-attack where there were two passes between the infringement and Ziko scoring. Without Marwan Attia's foul on Martinez, the goal would not have happened.

Then there's Mohamed Salah's penalty claim immediately before Enzo Fernandez's winner. In short, don't be silly. Salah was tackled by Julian Alvarez, lost control of the ball and tripped over the Argentina forward when trying to retrieve the situation. Play on.

The wider context here is Donald Trump bragging about helping to get Balogun permission to play for the United States against Belgium, the game after he was harshly red-carded against Bosnia and Herzegovina. If FIFA president Gianni Infantino is open to that, why wouldn't he do all he can to get Lionel Messi on the top step of the podium? The logic is flawless. And then, you see footage of him looking ashen-faced when Egypt went 2-0 up against Argentina... except that footage, widely circulated on social media, was from Infantino's reaction during the Netherlands vs. Morocco. He was not in attendance at Egypt vs. Argentina.

The FIFA-Messi conspiracy goes back to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and found fertile ground on corners of the internet that are pro-Cristiano Ronaldo. The obvious question is, if FIFA was determined for Messi to win at all costs, then why were France awarded two penalties in the final? Surely it would be easier not to do that? But, you see, we're missing all the little micro advantages that Argentina get from referees throughout games to put a finger on the scales. The beauty of that sort of argument, if you're tedious enough to make it, is that soccer's laws give you space to argue it forever. Maybe find a hobby, touch grass.

6. Gordon Banks was poisoned by the CIA in 1970

England were 2-0 up and cruising in the 1970 World Cup quarterfinal against West Germany, a rematch of their 1966 final victory. Then England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti dived over a speculative drive from Franz Beckenbauer, Germany halved the deficit and went on to win 3-2 in extra time. Bonetti was only playing because World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who made a career-defining save from Pele during England's 1-0 group-stage defeat to Brazil, was unfortunate enough to suffer food poisoning.

Or was it something more than misfortune? The tale goes that Banks was taken out of the game and purposefully made ill by the CIA, which had a vested interest in Brazil winning the World Cup to shore up the U.S.-backed military dictatorship in the South American country. The save from Pele put Banks in their crosshairs and England needed to be stopped. The alleged plot has even been the topic of a recent BBC podcast by investigative journalist Gabriel Gatehouse and Banks' grandson Ed Jervis.

Not to put this beyond their esteemed operatives, but we're looking at some pretty incredible levels of 4-D chess on the CIA's part. Brazil had already beaten England, who were on the opposite side of the draw. They could not possibly meet again until the final. West Germany were also a fantastic side, who lost an all-time classic of a semifinal to the Italy team that ultimately lost to an inspired Brazil 4-1 in the final in Mexico City. Also, as his fine career at Chelsea showed, Peter Bonetti was an excellent goalkeeper. Sometimes, mistakes happen. Would it not have made more sense to serve a star player from Brazil's quarterfinal and semifinal opponents, Peru and Uruguay, a dodgy burrito?

5. South Korea 2002 home cooking

South Korea made history as the first Asian nation to reach the semifinals of the World Cup on home soil in 2002, as they served as co-hosts alongside Japan. However, their improbable run did not garner the global acclaim you might expect.

Conspiracists will note that earlier the same day of South Korea's golden goal extra-time win over Italy in the Round of 16, Japan were knocked out by eventual semifinalists Turkey. Maybe someone needed a co-host to remain. Italy star Francesco Totti being given a second yellow card for diving when he should have been awarded a penalty, and an elbow on Alessandro Del Piero being ignored by Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno — who had given the Koreans a soft early penalty that Gianluigi Buffon saved from Ahn Jung-hwan — is not a great body of evidence. 

Not that everyone in Italy covered themselves in glory. Ahn was playing for Perugia at the time and, after he scored the decisive extra-time goal, the Serie A club cancelled his contract and a messy fallout ensued. In the quarterfinals, South Korea looked like being victims of a golden goal themselves, only for the linesman to erroneously flag that Spain winger Joaquin had allowed the ball to go out of play before crossing for Fernando Morientes to head home.

It remained 0-0 and South Korea won on penalties before their luck (or credulity) ran out in the semifinals against Germany. In an odd footnote to the story, referee Moreno later served more than two years in prison in the United States after pleading guilty to heroin-smuggling charges.

4. Italy 1934: Mussolini's World Cup

A couple of generations before, Italy were at the centre of allegations of hometown calls at the second-ever World Cup. This has the deeply unsavory undertone of Benito Mussolini using the tournament to promote and glorify his fascist regime. Against this backdrop, Italy winning the trophy was never going to play well. Overcoming a swashbuckling Austrian side who were everyone's darlings in the semis also didn't help.

The scarcity of footage of the 1934 tournament merely adds to the innuendo, but the available images we do have and contemporary match reports suggest Italy's quarterfinal equaliser against Spain was a 50-50 call. Italy also saw star player Giuseppe Meazza kicked to pieces and requiring treatment during the quarterfinal, semi and final in an era before substitutes. Unpopular winners, sure. But carried to victory by the hand of Mussolini? That's a harder one to make stick.

3. Argentina Holy Water

Ah, here's a conspiracy where one of the alleged villains has admitted the offence. However, among Diego Maradona's myriad qualities was him being an entertainingly unreliable narrator. Maradona supplied a majestic assist for Claudio Caniggia to sink Brazil 1-0 in the Round of 16 at Italia 90. It remains arguably Argentina's most celebrated win over their bitter rivals.

Shortly before Caniggia's goal, Brazil left-back Branco drank from a water bottle handed to him by Argentina physio Miguel Di Lorenzo. He claimed he began to feel ill and the allegation goes that the drink was laced with tranquillizers. At the very least, it might be the best argument in favour of FIFA formalising hydration breaks. 

The tale gained legs that Branco apparently lacked 15 years later, when Maradona alluded to the claims being true during a television interview. Then, the generally more sober observer Carlos Bilardo, Argentina's head coach at the time, remarked: "I don't know... I'm not saying it didn't happen." The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) then compiled a dossier to sent to FIFA, at which point the only real outcome of the whole affair could be immense, rent-free, Argentine enjoyment.

2. Why did Ronaldo play in the 1998 final?

The dramatic events preceding the 1998 World Cup final in Paris have long been the subject of intrigue and conspiracy. A brilliant 3-0 win for host nation France, inspired by a first-half brace from the great Zinedine Zidane to claim a maiden world title, can sometimes feel like a footnote. Les Bleus' defence shackled Ronaldo, the best player in the world at that time, but O Fenomeno was a shadow of himself.

It was a wonder he played at all. At lunchtime before the match, the 21-year-old Inter Milan star suffered a convulsive fit in his hotel room, witnessed by teammate Roberto Carlos. Ronaldo headed to the hospital with the team doctor, and head coach Mario Zagallo accepted he would not be able to play. Zagallo attempted to rouse his players with a team talk recalling the fact that he played in the 1962 Brazil team that won the World Cup despite Pele being injured for the final. When the team sheets dropped an hour and 15 minutes before kickoff at the Stade de France, the news that Edmundo was starting ahead of Ronaldo caused all hell to break loose in the media tribune. The initial cover story of an ankle injury didn't convince many.

The plot took another sensational twist when Ronaldo arrived at the stadium less than an hour before the start, declared himself fit to play and was reinstated. Brazil did not warm up on the field before the game and their No. 9 sleepwalked through a laboured performance. Zagallo lost his job, coaches and members of the medical staff followed, and the whole episode ended up being the subject of an inquest in Brazil's national congress. Murmurings that pressure from team sponsor Nike, the Brazilian federation, and FIFA itself forced Zagallo to pick a diminished Ronaldo were never proven.

1. Argentina's 1978 World Cup win

One allegation of a country benefiting from a World Cup conspiracy is unfortunate. Three in the same top-seven rundown...

We can dismiss the Messi-Infantino tragics and Maradona and Bilardo's braggadocio easily enough. But Argentina's success on home soil at the 1978 World Cup, ending their long wait for a first title while the country found itself under a brutal military junta, ranks as one of the World Cup's darkest chapters in many respects.

By the time of the finals, General Jorge Rafael Videla's regime had disappeared thousands of Argentinians, with many of them held in clandestine detention and torture centers. Prisoners at the infamous Navy and Mechanics School in Buenos Aires could hear the roars from the Estadio Monumental as Mario Kempes scored the goals that fired Cesar Luis Menotti's brilliant Argentina team to glory.

It's an utterly chilling tale. And it is part of the understandable conclusion that a regime capable of multiple evils wouldn't think twice about trying to rig a soccer tournament. The focus for conspiracy buffs is Argentina's final match of the second group stage against Peru. The tournament format featured a second round-robin phase, where the winners of the two groups of four contested the final. Argentina were left needing a win by four clear goals over Peru to deny Brazil a place in the showpiece. Peru were a good side, who had beaten a strong Scotland and topped a group featuring eventual finalists the Netherlands. They lost 6-0 to Argentina.

Allegations of collusion between Videla and his Peruvian counterpart Francisco Morales Bermudez abounded, although they were never proven, along with claims Peru's Argentine-born goalkeeper Ramon Quigora was bribed. Quigora vehemently denied the suggestions. Throw in the allegations from several Peru players that Videla and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissenger were present in their dressing room before the match, and there are an almost endless number of murky layers to this one 0 — so much so that the contemporary "it's all fixed so Messi can win stuff" feels quaint by comparison.