When, where and how to watch the world cup 2026

The wait's over. The 2026 World Cup runs from 11 June to 19 July across the USA, Canada and Mexico — 48 teams, 104 matches, and a tournament so big you'll need to book annual leave and a quiet word with your liver. Here's every England and Scotland fixture, plus the dates that matter, all in UK time.

Bookmark this one. We'll keep it handy as the knockouts firm up.

The key dates at a glance

• Thu 11 June, 8pm — Opening match: Mexico v South Africa
• 11–27 June — Group stage
• From 28 June — Round of 32 (the new bit — more knockout football, fewer dead rubbers)
• From 4 July — Round of 16
• From 9 July — Quarter-finals
• 14 & 15 July — Semi-finals
• Sun 19 July, 8pm — The Final, New York/New Jersey

England fixtures (Group L)

Tuchel's lot are in Group L with Croatia, Ghana and Panama. The good news for once: all three group games kick off at a civilised UK evening hour. No 3am alarms required for the early rounds.

• Wed 17 June, 9pm — England v Croatia (Dallas). The opener, and a rerun of 2018. Try to stay calm.
• Tue 23 June, 9pm — England v Ghana (Boston)
• Sat 27 June, 10pm — England v Panama (New York/New Jersey). Group finale — top spot or the scenic route.

Scotland fixtures (Group C)

The Tartan Army drew the short straw on the body clock — Group C means Brazil, Morocco and Haiti, and some proper late ones. Worth it, obviously.

• Early hours of Sun 14 June, 2am — Haiti v Scotland (Boston). One for the night owls and the truly committed.
• Fri 19 June, 11pm — Scotland v Morocco (Boston)
• Wed 24 June, 11pm — Scotland v Brazil (Miami). Daft? Yes. Watching anyway? Obviously.

The knockouts

This is the first World Cup with a Round of 32, so the drama starts earlier than you're used to. The top two from every group, plus the eight best third-placed sides, make it through.

• Round of 32 — from 28 June
• Round of 16 — from 4 July
• Quarter-finals — from 9 July
• Semi-finals — 14 & 15 July
• Final — Sun 19 July, 8pm (UK)

Where to watch

Half the fun of a World Cup is arguing about how to watch it. There are three camps, and you'll know which one you're in.

• The fan zones and fan parks — big screens in the city centre, a few hundred strangers who become your best mates for 90 minutes, and a goal celebration that feels like an earthquake. For the atmosphere-chasers who want it to feel like an event. Best saved for the bigger evening kick-offs, mind — nobody's running a fan park at 2am.
• The pub — the great British default. Someone else does the washing up, the food turns up at half-time, and there's nothing quite like a whole boozer groaning as one. The sociable middle ground, and the spiritual home of tournament football.
• At home on the sofa — remote in hand, your own fridge, your own rules, free to shout things you'd never say in public. Cheaper, comfier, and frankly the only sensible option for the small-hours games — unless you fancy explaining yourself to a taxi driver at 3am.

Watching at home? Choose your channel wisely

Every single match is free-to-air, split between the BBC and ITV (and streaming on iPlayer and ITVX). So the real living-room debate isn't who's playing — it's whose coverage you can stomach. Purely on personality, here's who we'll be tuning in for:

On the BBC:

• Alan Shearer — dry as a July pitch, calls it straight, no waffle. A Geordie legend who's earned the right to an opinion and isn't shy about it.
• Alex Scott — sharp, warm and unflappable, brings the energy without ever losing the thread. Always worth the watch.

On ITV:

• Ian Wright — pure, undiluted joy. Wrighty loves football the way the rest of us do, and that enthusiasm is impossible not to catch. (Full disclosure: the team wanted Roy Keane in this slot — but as a long-suffering Ipswich fan, the gaffer at 11Shirts couldn't bring himself to type the name. Not after that spell at Portman Road. Some wounds never heal.)
• Karen Carney — four World Cups' worth of know-how, reads the game brilliantly and doesn't do fence-sitting.

Those are our picks. Yours will be different — that's what the group chat's for.

How to survive the group stage

Here's the catch with a World Cup across the Atlantic: your body clock takes an absolute battering. Plenty of games don't kick off until 11pm, and a few roll deep into the small hours (the 2am Scotland opener says hello). If you're planning to watch the lot — and let's be honest, you are — here's your survival kit:

• A fridge stocked with energy drinks, and the deep regret that arrives the next morning.
• Matchsticks for the eyelids. Old-school. Cartoon-style. Whatever it takes.
• A rotating set of excuses for why you look like that at your desk on Thursday: dodgy curry, the dog was unwell, "the tactical analysis overran."
• Annual leave booked around the knockout games. Plan ahead. Thank us in July.
• A daytime nap strategy your boss must never discover.

Get tournament-ready

Six weeks of football. You're going to be in the pub, the garden and the front room a lot — so you may as well be dressed for the occasion. Our World Cup 2026 collection has a shirt for every nation plus a pile of banter tees for the long, emotional summer ahead. Have a look before the first whistle.

All kick-off times are UK (BST). The World Cup spans four North American time zones, so a few games land in the small hours — double-check times nearer the day, as broadcasters occasionally tweak them.