We now know who, where and when England and Scotland will play next summer in the men’s football World Cup. The tournament runs from 11 June to 19 July 2026 and is being hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, but both home teams will play their initial three group games at American venues.
England will take on Croatia in their opening game in Dallas, followed by Ghana in Boston and finally Panama in New York.
For Scotland’s first men’s World Cup appearance in 28 years, the first two matches are both in Boston: against Haiti and Morocco. Boston is the closest venue to Scotland. Their final match of the group, against Brazil, is in Florida.
Were either Wales or Northern Ireland to qualify, they would play in Toronto, Los Angeles and Seattle.
It’s a massive geographical puzzle. Ahead of the upcoming randomised draw for tickets to specific matches, the answers to the key questions are here.
What do fans need to know before travelling to the World Cup?
It’s going to be hot – particularly for England’s first match against Croatia in Dallas, where the average daily high is 33C. For Scotland’s final group game against Brazil in Miami, expect 31C and high humidity.
It’s going to be expensive: air fares shot up in the hours after the locations for the group matches were announced.
And before you do any planning, sort out the red tape. Apply for an Esta permit, which costs $40 (£31) before committing to travel arrangements.
While most are granted within a couple of days, Estas can be refused for all kinds of reasons. If your application is turned down and you have to apply for a visa, the process will be slow and expensive. You will need to attend the US Embassy in London or Consulate in Belfast, and there is no guarantee of success.
People will need transatlantic flights – what sort of prices can they expect to pay?
I have been tracking the price of flights from the point of view of an England fan who takes the first non-stop departure from London Heathrow to Dallas-Fort Worth the day before the opening game, and returns from New York JFK during the day after the last group match.
At 5pm on Saturday, just before the big reveal, the fare on American Airlines was £837. Within three hours, it had gone up by one-sixth to nearly £1,000. Those fares will only increase.
You can keep the cost down by taking a connecting flight via Ireland, Continental Europe or a different US gateway. That is also the answer for many English and Scottish airports: London has by far the highest concentration of transatlantic flights, with Manchester and Edinburgh a long way behind.
What about travel within the US?
Loads of US domestic flights serving Boston, Dallas, New York and Miami – England’s and Scotland’s match venues. But there will also be huge demand from fans, the media and the organisers – and it seems clear that fares are already rising. For example, flying from Boston to Miami the day after Scotland’s second game, the cheapest one-way fare is £322. Delaying the trip a few days and flying south the day before the last match against Brazil, you can pay just £89 if you don’t mind a change of planes in New York with a four-hour connection.
Between Boston and New York, venues for England’s second and third matches, Amtrak trains take about four hours, but they are absurdly expensive for a journey of barely 200 miles. Booking now, the lowest fare for June is £175.
Greyhound and FlixBus only take about an hour longer, and cost only £25 or so.
What about accommodation?
Unless you are lucky to have friends or family with spare beds near the venues, be prepared for some credit card shock – especially for the England match in New York.
On the night of 27 June, when England play Panama, hotel rates are already absurd. A typical budget hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in midtown Manhattan, is already over £500 for that night. And while it’s fun to stay at the YMCA in Manhattan, the price for a very basic single room with a shared bathroom is £200 on 27 June.
I would not book at those prices. You could head for one of the other New York City boroughs – my standby is the Best Western out at Coney Island, with good Subway connections. This summer I paid £120. On the England night it’s £275.
Are there any alternatives for a cheaper bed?
Yes: be patient. I have seen the standard pattern for big sporting events and it goes like this: hotels and other accommodation providers think this is the best get-rich-quick scheme in history. They set their rates high, especially for games involving teams with many travelling fans, such as Brazil, Germany and England. But because many “normal” business and leisure guests won’t be staying in World Cup host cities, there is likely to be plenty to go around – with prices falling in the weeks before the tournament.
Also, with rates high, increasingly more people will be tempted to put their place on platforms like Airbnb and escape on vacation for the duration. That should put downward pressure on prices.
There’s a lot of time to fill between the games…
Fans should treat the trip as a holiday with some football attached. Boston is a fine city that is well worth 48 hours of exploration, with much to see elsewhere in Massachusetts – from billionaires’ row on Cape Cod to the city of Lowell, a mill town regarded as the cradle of America’s industrial revolution. It’s also where Jack Kerouac, author of On The Road, grew up.
Talking of road trips, England fans travelling from Dallas to Boston, as well as Scotland fans going from Boston to Miami, have excellent opportunities for adventurous journeys between the matches.
From Dallas, you can meander through the music state of Tennessee, stopping in Memphis and Nashville, then following the line of the Appalachian mountains. South from Boston, the I-95 runs all the way to Miami via New York and Washington DC, with Savannah and the Kennedy Space Center top tourist spots right next to the freeway – but you can take your pick of diversions, including a day at the theme parks of Orlando.
For any neutrals who just want to soak up the atmosphere – where is the best place to be based?
To maximise the chance of a ticket, choose matches involving teams with few travelling supporters and without large local communities with links to the teams.
I’m looking at:
- Curacao v Ivory Coast in Philadelphia
- Qatar v Switzerland in San Francisco
- Iran v New Zealand in Los Angeles
- Cape Verde v Saudi Arabia in Houston
With teams like Albania, New Caledonia and Suriname still in the running for qualification, there could be some even more obscure matches.
