Myanmar Fans Boycott World Cup Over Junta-Linked
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- Myanmar football fans are boycotting official World Cup broadcasts after FIFA awarded rights to Mytel, a telecom jointly owned by a military-controlled conglomerate and Vietnam's Defence Ministry.
- FIFA selected Mytel despite the Trump administration sanctioning the firm in January 2025 for providing surveillance services and financial support to the junta, enabling human rights abuses.
- Mytel is reviled by much of Myanmar's population for financing the regime's war and providing customer data that has led to the arrest and torture of outspoken critics.
- Fans are now watching matches via VPNs and overseas streaming apps, with pubs and tea shops that once packed for World Cup viewing now largely empty under the junta's five-year rule.
- In rebel-controlled "liberated areas", Mytel towers have been destroyed and residents watch via internet apps; in military zones, young people avoid public gatherings for fear of conscription patrols.
- Burma Campaign UK called on FIFA to cancel the contract, saying the body is "helping the Burmese military make profits which they can use to buy the bombs they drop on schools and hospitals."
- FIFA said in a statement that its internal compliance review "identified no issues" with the Mytel deal.
Why it matters: The broadcast deal channels revenue to a military that has displaced nearly 3.6 million people and bombs civilian targets, handing the junta a financial lifeline even as fans organize a grassroots boycott. FIFA's claim that its compliance review cleared a US-sanctioned firm with documented surveillance ties — without raising the military ownership — exposes the gap between the body's commercial practices and human rights accountability.
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