/r/soccer Meta Thread - March 2026: the World Cup, highlights clips, content providers, and more Hello everyone! It has been a while since our last Meta Thread - which for those who missed it, focused on the change to our moderation policy of threads on Palestine and Israel (and our unequivocal stance of freedom for Palestine). That policy is not set to change, so is not the focus of this thread... Instead, with the looming threat of WW3 the 2026 World Cup, we would like to outline our approach to moderating /r/soccer during the tournament, and some other key issues that have recently been flagged by the community. The purpose of this thread is to hold an open forum about these topics, to help guide our moderation. This OP contains the headlines of these key issues The thread is in contest mode, and the only top level comments allowed will be the long form version of each of these issues In order to contribute, please reply to the relevant comment. Thank you. 1) /r/soccer during the World Cup Major tournaments are a time of increased traffic, and toxicity - necessitating a different moderation approach. For the 2022 World Cup, we managed this by increasing the moderation controls in the subreddit in order to minimise toxicity, reduce the ability of "bad faith actors"to participate, and to keep the level of discourse at a reasonable level. With the subreddit several million subscribers larger four years later - and the discourse around the 2026 World Cup arguably even more toxic - this approach will continue, and will be even stricter. 2) Xenophobia and Hate Speech It has been well recognised for many years that major tournaments are a lightning rod for increased xenophobia and hate speech in /r/soccer. We anticipate this will be worse again, for the 2026 World Cup, and so would like to remind people of our community standards. This will be taking a hardline stance - in the corresponding comment you will find our policy, with examples of what is and is not acceptable. 3) Mod Recruitment Stricter application of the rules - and the huge increase in traffic - necessitates the need for some additional hands on deck in the mod team. We have long taken a "head hunting" approach to mod recruitment, and as such have a few names in mind already - but if you would like to be considered, please let us know. These mods will be recruited initially on a temporary basis, but may well become permanent members of the team going forward. 4) Highlights Clips There has been a shift in recent times - not unnoticed by the mod team or community - of a decline in the quality of the highlights clips posted to /r/soccer. These clips have long been the backbone of the content here, and a major draw for many users. The two key issues relate to a) the quality of clips, b) the content of these clips (i.e. what constitutes a “highlight”?) 5) Brand Accounts Reddit becoming a more mainstream platform in the past decade has meant an increase in “brand accounts” submitting content. This has been seen on /r/soccer - with accounts representing newspapers like the Daily Telegraph, merchandise brands like Adidas, or even football clubs like Everton - submitting their own content to the subreddit. Our current policy is to allow these accounts, with the view that they offer overall net benefit to the community - and doing so has led to AMA opportunities, too (see: our recent AMA with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. 6) Fabrizio Romano - "Here We Don’t Go?" Speaking of brand accounts… "Fabrizio" has become an increasingly controversial figure in the football media world. Once THE source for breaking transfer news, his star has faded - and concern has been raised by many about his alignment with figures like Mason Greenwood, and monetisation of tragedies like the deaths of Diego Jota and Andre Silva. This has led to calls for us to follow suit with /r/liverpoolfc, and ban Romano - as a moral stance.   submitted by   /u/AnnieIWillKnow [link]   [comments]