World Cup 2026 live: Mexico face protests before opener after Gianni Infantino’s shambolic press conference – UK Times

With the final squads being named, teams will now prepare for their first group stage games in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

There will be 104 matches, up 40 since Qatar World Cup 2022, while Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo likely to play on this stage for the last time in their glittering careers.

Here’s how the tournament will unfold across 39 action-packed days:

Months before World Cup 2026 got underway, senior figures within Fifa already found the planning hadn’t been going “as expected”. And that’s saying something. When the hosting of Canada-Mexico-USA was confirmed back in 2018, after all, the widespread feeling in football circles was that it was a return to the “familiar”.

Two of the countries had already hosted three of the most successful World Cups of all, and the promise in the bid-book was that this would be “low-risk and operational certainty”. It of course greatly aided such feelings that another promise was about record revenue projections of $14bn.

Miguel Delaney previews the 2026 World Cup:

Mexico’s World Cup curtain-raiser against South Africa kicks off at 8pm BST tonight.

Viewers in the UK can watch the game free-to-air on ITV1 with coverage starting at 6:15pm BST. The match can also be streamed on ITVX.

When Anthony Gordon joined Barcelona, the surprisingly good Spanish he spoke at his unveiling was, he said, a product of his dream to play for them. There are times when it seems his rise has been underpinned by ambition. Gordon may be a great self-improver, the scrawny kid who can hassles and harry defenders. But he has also coveted some of the trappings of stardom: the No 10 shirt, the penalties, the move to the glamour clubs.

And so it was that when Eberechi Eze’s shot was handled that Gordon stepped forward in the Three Lions’ final preparation before the World Cup 2026 starts. He would not have done had Harry Kane still been on the field, but the England captain had departed a few minutes earlier. But Gordon can capitalise on the departure of penalty takers.

When Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson, each capable of excelling from 12 yards, left Newcastle in the same summer, it provided an opportunity for Gordon. He saw an opening. He had the self-belief; some would say the greed. A dispute with Kieran Trippier in a rout of Qarabag came from a personal greed for goals, Gordon taking his second spot kick of the evening when Nick Woltemade seemed to need a goal more. The fact he scored 10 goals in the Champions League this season owed something to the fact five were spot kicks.

Richard Jolly delves into Anthony Gordon after England rounded off their World Cup preparations with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica:

As the stand-out line – outside the Fifa president praising himself for the “impossible” of ensuring Iran play – “just chill” wasn’t quite up there with all of Infantino’s feelings from four years ago.

It also meant this didn’t really live up to billing, even if it did inadvertently say more than the actual words intended.

Read more from Miguel Delaney:

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of everything World Cup related, as the tournament get underway this evening!

Mexico play host to South Africa in a repeat of the 2010 opener in Johannesburg, only with the role of home nation flipped.

That game gave us one of the all-time World Cup moments – “TSHABALALAAAAAA!!!” – so let’s hope after last night’s disastrous Gianni Infantino press conference, we can get things off on a right note.