World Cup 2026 live: Gianni Infantino to give major press conference on eve of tournament kick-off

Anyone unfortunate enough to have watched much of the Club World Cup last year will have noted a couple of long weather delays that disrupted the tournament. Such a scenario could occur again over the next few weeks:

Time to get ahead of ourselves – here’s England’s possible route to the World Cup final, which I’m sure will go down well after a shock group stage exit.

Thomas Tuchel says that England’s players are ready to ‘push’ through the rest of their pre-camp as they continue their preparations for the start of the World Cup 2026.

Thomas Tuchel was pretty cautious over Bukayo Saka’s fitness ahead of England’s clash with Costa Rica, warning that the Arsenal forward would have to be managed during the tournament.

“We still have to take care a little bit about Bukayo, who had an injury in the March camp and carried it through, of course, into his club campaign,” Tuchel said. “He was available and made himself available in the end of the season, and did this brilliantly, but he was managed in-between matches and that continues a little bit at the very moment, so we’re building him up.”

Will Thomas Tuchel tip his hand with his England selection tonight? The manager now has a full squad with which to work, and his choice at No 10 might be indicative with Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers battling for one spot.

It’s about six hours until England kick off their final World Cup warm-up against Costa Rica in Miami, with Djed Spence likely to feature again after providing the assist for Harry Kane against New Zealand. The Tottenham full-back is playing through a broken jaw, and is set to wear a protective mask for the duration of the tournament.

Former Uefa president Platini, one of the most gifted footballers of the 1970s and 1980s, had been favourite to succeed Sepp Blatter as Fifa chief in 2016 until the launch of an ethics probe into a payment he received from Blatter in 2011.

Platini was banned for eight years by Fifa’s ethics committee in 2015 – a sanction which was later reduced to four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Gianni Infantino has attempted to wield the influence that comes with his position on the geopolitical stage – but not, perhaps, positively.

How Giannni Infantino deals with the questions related to the refused entry for referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan will be an item of obvious interest. Miguel Delaney has several of his own to put to the Fifa president.

You may remember Gianni Infantino’s pre-tournament press conference as one of the more compelling and curious parts of the last World Cup. One wonders how he is feeling today, with the Fifa president due to speak later with some questions to answer over a chaotic build-up to the tournament.

That press conference in Mexico City is set for a 7.30pm BST start.