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Martin Belam
Good afternoon (or morning or evening depending on where you are reading), I’m delighted to confirm that the Guardian transfer window is open and I’ve been able to go on loan to the sport desk again for the World Cup. Slightly less delighted about most of the group stage matches being at unsociable hours in the UK, but you can’t have everything.
Daniel Gallan has written for us about his memories of the last time South Africa and Mexico opened a World Cup, which he was watching at a fan park on the beach in Durban. Some guys have all the luck. When Siphiwe Tshabalala opened the scoring, Daniel recalls “In Soccer City, on the Durban beach, in townships, suburbs, shebeens and lounges, the country lost its mind. I remember leaping into the arms of strangers, staring into their faces for confirmation that this was real.”
Let’s hope we get some more lovely memories like this over the coming one billion matches in the 2026 tournament …
And on that retro bombshell, I’ll hand you over to your friend and mine Martin Belam, who’ll guide you through the early afternoon.
On This Day In World Cup History: 1990 – Careca was a decent player wasn’t he?
Manchester United release Sancho, Bissouma leaves Spurs. Jadon Sancho has a prominent role in Dear England of course, around the 2021 Euros, but five years on there are no surprises that his departure from Manchester United has been confirmed as various Premier League clubs announce their released lists. United have also confirmed that Casemiro and Tyrell Malacia were leaving.
Elsewhere Spurs have relased Yves Bissouma, the midfielder having dropped down the pecking order in the past year. Tottenham have given a new contract to the defender Ben Davies, as reported earlier.
Further to the Dear England ruminations an hour or so ago, Michael Hogan has assembled a handy guide to the best telly and film to get you in the mood for the World Cup. Particular shouts for This is England 86, The Game Of Their Lives and An Evening With Gary Lineker, written at a time when football and theatre were very much estranged culturally.
The USA now, and Jeff Rueter has profiled the London-raised Folarin Balogun, who is set to be a focal point for the co-hosts:
Some strikers are gregarious personalities who ensure attention even when they struggle. Folarin Balogun prefers to speak softly and maintain a healthy goalscoring record. The 24-year-old has still been making himself known to his country of birth – he was born in New York but raised in London – after committing to the US over England and Nigeria. This past season, he finished fourth in Ligue 1 scoring with 13 goals, priming him for an emergent World Cup on home soil.
Balogun’s recruitment was closely monitored by US fans, desperate for a dependable goalscorer.
“What we would say in England is how sharp he is,” the USMNT captain, Tim Ream, said. “Just with his movement: left, right, being able to hold the ball up and bring other players in, and then his movement in behind and getting himself in the goalscoring positions is something that we’ve been crying out for for a long time with the team and this group. He’s probably the most annoying striker for me to have to deal with in training because he is so quick with his movements, physically strong and able to seemingly glide past people.”
Just a brief catch-up on some competitive football last night – England’s 3-0 win over Ukraine in their final Women’s World Cup qualifier. It wasn’t enough for the Lionesses to avoid the playoffs though, as group leaders Spain hammered Iceland to seal automatic qualification for Brazil 2027.
A dip into some BTL commentary now. Here’s Jacknimrod10:
Could anyone imagine having an actual conversation with Gianni Infantino? The guy seems to be living in some parallel world completely different from real football fans. If he really believed the guff he spouts, he would have intervened in this ref situation. He’s just made himself even more despised. If life was a film, he would be the first corporate fluffer to get troughed by the escaped T-Rex in Jurassic Park 2026.
It’s a poser isn’t it? I mean he’s obviously not stupid – he’s worked his way up Fifa’s ladder with consummate nous – but he seems incapable of critical thought. A case study in how far blind power worship, blind following-the-money, can lead an unremarkable and uncharismatic man.
Forgive me the brief switch of sport but Chuck D – Chuck D! – has made his Guardian Sport debut:
A couple more nuggets of club news: Casemiro’s departure from Manchester United, long trailed, has been confirmed. As has Ben Davies’s 12-month contract extension at Tottenham.
Mexican protesters block road to stadium
The US isn’t the only World Cup host where politics and football are colliding messily, albeit that they’re being handled more sensitively. There have been protests in Mexico, where a demonstration blocked an avenue leading to Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium for hours on Tuesday, AFP reports.
Teacher protests in the capital have been ongoing and thousands took part in Tuesday’s protest, which was led by a breakaway group of the CNTE union following a week of demonstrations that President Claudia Sheinbaum has called a “provocation.” “As if to say, ’Look at how bad the situation is in Mexico,’” she told a press conference.
A police blockade prevented the demonstrators from reaching the Azteca Stadium, which will host the World Cup opening match on Thursday. With thousands of officers deployed and concrete barriers set up around the venue, protesters rallied on the street for around three hours before dispersing.
Mexico City’s security chief Pablo Vazquez said in a statement that the movement had been peaceful.
Sheinbaum said earlier that the opening match was “guaranteed,” though the left-leaning leader again ruled out using police to repress the demonstrations.
Her government has favoured dialogue with the protesting teachers, but to no avail. “We’re going to continue our struggle,” said protester Austreberto Flores.
The CNTE teachers union has been on strike since last week to demand a salary raise and the reversal of a pension law – which the government considers unfeasible.
The teachers have also set up camp near the World Cup fan zone in Mexico City’s Zocalo square.
The teachers have called for demonstrations on Thursday that will also include families of so-called “disappeared” people, who are alleged to have been killed or kidnapped by Mexican authorities or criminal gangs.
Thomas Tuchel told last night’s presser that he was giving his team afternoons off and time with families, to create the kind of relaxed atmosphere with which he is not always perhaps readily associated. I finally finished watching Dear England last night, and it immediately prompted thoughts about the cultural gear change from Gareth Southgate to Tuchel. Also, even allowing for a playright’s creative licence, it’s striking how impressive and admirable Harry Kane comes across. The whole thing – angst, hysteria and all – is a decent appetite-whetter for this tournament anyway.
Good to see Paul Gascoigne out and about. The totemic Italia 90 star was on Good Morning Britain this morning talking about England’s prospects and the importance of team spirit, as PA Media reports:
“You want 11 captains on the pitch and when you are playing in a game like that, at a World Cup, you cannot afford to carry anyone,” Gascoigne said. “Everyone has to be on the ball and the team spirit is important.
“The players that didn’t play [om 1990], they were right behind the team, so our team spirit was unbelievable. The most important thing is team spirit because that goes a long way.”
When asked what he would say to the current squad, the 59-year-old added: “Enjoy it. Because you just never know it could be your last World Cup.”
More on the referee Omar Artan. Morgan Ofori preaches it.
So what does Fifa do about a World Cup in which the influence of Donald Trump – a man its leaders so publicly sought to cultivate – begins to affect the very architecture of their showpiece event? What does the organisation’s head, Gianni Infantino, however busy he may be organising absurd baubles for Trump or fighting legal threats from his own predecessor, say or do in moments like this?
He does what he is doing: he effectively shrugs and counts the dollars, measures the prestige growth and pretends all is well while the house catches fire. He seeks African expansion while willingly throwing certain nations under the bus for the prestige of a US World Cup. The Fifa he leads chooses complicity over courage.
How are you scheduling your middle of the night viewing, if you’re in Europe? Anyone who’s ever watched a Premier League live feed in a bar at 2am in Melbourne knows that following the game from Australia can be a body-clock wrecker. So Christopher Knaus from Guardian Australia has compiled this handy guide:
This is the lot of us longsuffering Australian football fans. Football and sleep deprivation walk hand-in-hand in this country. The waking weekend hours are a haze and Mondays are four-coffee days. We gamble so much more on that 90 minutes. A scoreless stalemate takes on new levels of frustration when you know it’s going to leave you functionally impaired for 24 hours.
And now, while we Australians find ourselves in a position of relative bliss, the shoe is, of course, very much on the other foot in the UK. This World Cup, held in Canada, Mexico and the US, has given England fans manageable group-stage fixtures. But Scotland fans are being hit with a 2am kick-off, right off the bat. Others are staring down the barrel of midnight and 3am starts. Forty-four of the 104 games are being played between midnight and 5am UK time.
So, I’m here to offer you the wisdom of football fans who were born on the wrong side of the planet. We’ve tried every approach you are now contemplating.
Referee Artan gets hero’s welcome in Somalia
The World Cup referee who was denied entry to the United States arrived on Wednesday in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where he was received by a crowd of supporters and officials …
“I promise you, God willing, that I will attend the next one,” he said as hundreds of supporters at the airport waved the Somali flag. “I want the Somali public to take comfort in this and remain confident.”
A couple of items of club news: Benfica have confirmed the arrival of former Fulham gaffer Marco Silva on a two-year deal. Silva replaces José Mourinho, about whom probably more later, with Real Madrid set to formally announce the Portuguese’s return today. Ben Davies has signed a new Spurs deal, and Raul Jiménez has signed for Wolves for a second time, agreeing a two-year contract with the newly relegated club.
Some reading for you all to catch up on:
Jacob Steinberg on England’s need for attacking alternatives that aren’t built entirely around Harry Kane.
Our DR Congo and Uzbekistan team guides
Luke Entwistle’s interview with the hugely successful but not always greatly appreciated Didier Deschamps
And this week’s Knowledge, on repeat opening fixtures, the prominence of former Everton managers at World Cup 2026, and more.
England are gearing up for their final pre-tournament warmup, against Costa Rica in Orlando, with notes of caution being sounded about Bukayo Saka’s fitness. Thomas Tuchel said that while Saka’s fellow Arsenal late-arrivers Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke were pretty much up to speed, “Bukayo is just not there yet. Some things are missing … consecutive trainings. They took very good care of him [at Arsenal] and were very aware of it and we will do a little bit the same. He is at the moment not able to do every training session through the week and then play. He is still going to be managed”.
David Hytner has the full story:
Preamble
Morning/evening/middle-of-the-night everyone. And welcome to Wednesday’s World Cup liveblog, with around 35 hours to go to the big kick-off. Excited? I kind of am, in spite of myself. Because yesterday was a pretty unedifying day, as some of the fears around the cruel politicisation of the tournament came to fruition, with the fallout from the barring of the Somali referee Omar Artan, members of Iran’s entourage being denied admission to the US and their ticket allocation being seemingly withdrawn, plus the earlier long detention on arrival of the Iraq striker Aymen Hussein. Fifa, normally so insistent on imposing full colonial demands on host countries, has acquiesced with all this.
But never mind, because Fifa overlord Gianni Infantino has been joshing about the US being invaded by friendly “barbarians”. Speaking at the tournament’s star-studded launch shindig in LA, the Fifa president quipped: “You will be invaded. You will be invaded by a horde of barbarians. But it’s happy barbarians, don’t worry.
“Men, women, children, grandparents, doesn’t matter, they will all have their faces colored with the colors of their countries,” he said. “They will just want to enjoy and have fun because that’s what we want to do with the World Cup – we want to unite the world.” Good luck with that.
Meanwhile, back in the real world Argentina beat Iceland 3-0 in Auburn, Alabama, in their final World Cup warmup. Lionel Messi came off the bench in the second half and scored his side’s second goal, from a penalty, as he continues to manage hamstring soreness. Valentin Barco had put Argentina ahead in the eighth minute, and Thiago Almeda wrapped things up with a third four minutes from time. Elsewhere, Iraq’s final tune-up before their Group I campaign begins ended in a 2-0 loss to Venezuela.
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