World Cup fever is building with tournament’s opening game just days away

Sport | Football
World Cup 2026 LIVE: Latest news and updates as referee Omar Artan denied entry to United States
World Cup fever is building with tournament’s opening game just days away
Alex Young, Senior Sport Editor @ alexwsyoung
2 minutes ago
World Cup 2026 LIVE!
The biggest sporting competition the world has ever seen begins this week as United States, Mexico and Canada welcome 45 other nations to their shores for the 2026 World Cup. A record-breaking tournament will see the most matches ever – 104 games across 16 host cities – and, organisers’ claim, the biggest attendances.
England have been in Florida for a week, and beat New Zealand in Tampa on Saturday in their first of two warm-up friendlies ahead of their opening game against Croatia next week. Harry Kane scored the only goal in an unconvincing 1-0 win, and head coach Thomas Tuchel spoke afterwards at his displeasure at his players’ freestyle proach to the game in the first half, before improving after the break.
Up next for the Three Lions is Costa Rica at the Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, which should include the four late-arriving Arsenal stars, before the squad fly out to their World Cup base in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 13. You can follow all the latest news and updates from across the tournament – including insight and analysis from Dom Smith in the States – with our rolling news live blog below!
World Cup 2026 latest news
3 minutes ago
Somali referee Omar Artan to miss World Cup after being denied US entry visa
A Somali referee who was set to become the first from his country to officiate at a World Cup has been denied entry to the United States.
World governing body FIFA confirmed Omar Artan, who was selected as one of 52 referees for the tournament, will now be removed from its roster.
A FIFA spokesperson said: FIFA can confirm that match official Omar Abdulkadir Artan will be unable to train and officiate at the FIFA World Cup 2026 after he was denied entry into the United States.
FIFA is not involved in host country immigration processes, including visa adjudications, and has been informed by authorities that Mr Artan’s status will not be changed at present.
In line with previous FIFA events, a host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and who is admitted into their country.
Read more here.
Omar Artan
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23 minutes ago
Arsenal star ruled out of World Cup
In the big news overnight, Jurrien Timber, the Arsenal defender, has been ruled out of the World Cup.
The Dutchman had been called up by Ronald Koeman for this summer’s tournament, and he made his return from a long injury lay-off in the Champions League final for Arsenal, coming off the bench against Paris Saint-Germain.
Mikel Arteta had said that he was back fit again after niggling ankle and groin issues, but it is the latter that has seemingly ended his World Cup dreams, with the Oranje confirmed he had pulled out of the squad. Lutsharel Geertruida, the Sunderland defender, has replaced him.
Read more here!
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8 hours ago
Neymar injury latest
Neymar’s World Cup hopes have been given a boost after Brazil announced he was making good progress in his recovery from a calf injury.
Brazil’s all-time leading scorer was expected to be sidelined for between two to three weeks after scans last month revealed a grade two muscle tear.
The 34-year-old had a further scan on Monday and the Brazilian Football Confederation said in a brief statement: The exam showed good progress in his treatment, within expected parameters.
He will continue the recovery and physical preparation process planned by the Brazilian National Team’s medical staff.
Neymar has missed Brazil’s two warm-up friendlies, last month’s 6-2 win against Panama and Saturday’s 2-1 victory against Egypt, and faces a race to be fit in time for their opening World Cup group game against Morocco on June 13.
The former Barcelona and Paris St Germain playmaker, who returned to his boyhood club Santos in early 2025, has been dogged by injury issues in recent seasons. (PA Media)
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8 hours ago
France 3-1 Northern Ireland: Michael Olise hits stunning hat-trick as Les Bleus send World Cup warning shot
Northern Ireland were undone by a superb Michael Olise hat-trick as France jetted off to the World Cup with a 3-1 friendly win, but another spirited performance from Michael O’Neill’s young side was rewarded with Patrick Kelly’s first international goal.
Olise struck either side of half-time, both goals unerring finishes on the rebound, and after Kelly pulled one back the Bayern Munich man delivered a superb curling strike to settle it in the 75th minute.
But France, among the favourites to lift the World Cup this summer, hardly had things all their own way as Northern Ireland – whose starting XI had an average age of just 22.6 – dug in to produce another determined display showing maturity beyond their years.
And that was rewarded in the 64th minute when Kelly, the 21-year-old making only his second international start, turned in a Shea Charles cross, silencing the crowd to deliver on O’Neill’s plea for his players to act as badly-behaved guests at France’s going-away party.
READ MORE HERE!
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9 hours ago
Ngumoha reflects on England debut
Rio Ngumoha made his senior England debut in Saturday’s friendly win over New Zealand, and he has reflected on the experience in an interview with the Three Lions p.
I’ll say it was a crazy feeling. I was hpy, I was buzzing.
I knew from when we had the meeting before that it was a first-half team and a second-half team so I was preparing.
It’s good that I didn’t have much time to think about it, but I wasn’t too nervous, to be fair. I just wanted to play and just show everyone what I could do. And yeah, I just had fun.
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10 hours ago
Timber ruled out
Jurrien Timber has been ruled out of the World Cup with a groin injury, the Dutch national team has confirmed.
The Arsenal right-back missed much of Premier League run-in through injury as the Gunners clinched the title for the first time since 2004.
A national team statement read: Jurriën Timber misses the 2026 World Cup. The 24-year-old defender has not recovered sufficiently from a groin injury to take part in the World Cup in a medically responsible manner.
Sunderland’s Lutsharel Geertruida has been called up in place of Timber, who has 23 cs for Der Oranje.
Read more here!
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11 hours ago
McGinn weighs in on Scotland friendly row
John McGinn said Scotland must ‘look after No1’ after they came under fire for cancelling a planned friendly with Norway.
Scotland had been due to face Norway in an hour-long training-ground friendly this week, but Steve Clarke’s side backed out at short notice after his squad picked up one or two niggles in training and decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
They were subsequently branded unprofessional by Norway boss Stale Solbakken.
But McGinn is adamant Scotland made the right move: “Our job is to look after Scotland, Norway’s job is to look after Norway.
“If they done their research, they’d know we lost a key part of our team recently, and we don’t want to lose anyone else.
“We’ve got to look after number one.”
READ MORE HERE!
PA
12 hours ago
England already facing weather delay
A thunderstorm is forecast to hit Orlando right around the time Englands’ friendly against Costa Rica is due to kick-off.
It may give supporters an early taste of the weather delays which will likely disrupt plenty of matches throughout this World Cup.

13 hours ago
Morocco face double injury blow
Morocco were left with an injury doubt over Real Betis winger Abde Ezzalzouli following a 1-1 World Cup warm-up draw against Norway.
The former Barcelona player went off at half-time with a leg injury and is set to undergo scans.
Noussair Mazraoui was also forced off with a shoulder knock but head coach Mohamed Ouahbi allayed fears the Manchester United defender could miss his team’s opener against Brazil on Saturday.
Scotland’s Group C rivals were already facing doubts over the fitness of first-choice centre-back Nayef Aguerd. The Marseille player has been out for three months with a groin problem.
Morocco took an early lead against Norway through Brahim Diaz but Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard levelled in the 75th minute. (Via PA Media)
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14 hours ago
Chicago ‘turned down chance to host World Cup’
Chicago turned down the opportunity to be one of the World Cup’s host cities.
Rahm Emanuel, who served as mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019, told The Athletic that he could not make peace with the strain the tournament could put on Chicago residents and taxpayers.
He said: [FIFA] said in the contract that they had the right to request a dome being built over Soldier Field (the venue is open). So I said: ‘You have got to take that out.’
They go, ‘We never exercise it, but it’s something we ask everybody to include.’ I said, ‘I don’t care if you’ve never exercised it. There will always be a first. Take it out and we can work through the other issues.’ They said, ‘We can’t take it out.’
So I said there is not a chance I am going to have you directing me on a $50 million-$100 million expense to the taxpayers. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. You can’t have something in there that leaves the city and the taxpayers exposed, where (FIFA) gets to decide it and I have no vote in it.
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