FIFA's digital watchdogs uncovered 89,000 abusive posts on social media during the group stage of the World Cup, marking a 13-fold increase from the 2022 edition in Qatar, world soccer’s governing body said on Wednesday.

The alarming spike was recorded after FIFA's Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) scanned over six million posts and comments -- a 33 per cent jump from 2022 -- with racial abuse accounting for 11 per cent of all detected offensive messages.