Home World Cup 2026England confirm venues for World Cup warm-ups

England confirm venues for World Cup warm-ups

by Charles
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Apr 9, 2026, 10:38 AM ETOpen Extended Reactions

England have confirmed the venues for their pre-World Cup friendlies against New Zealand and Costa Rica in June.

Thomas Tuchel's side will face New Zealand at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on June 6 before lining up against Costa Rica to the Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando on June 10.

The World Cup kicks off the following day but England do not play their tournament opener against Croatia until June 17.

The Raymond James Stadium is the home of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It hosted the Super Bowl in 2021.

MLS side Orlando City and the NWSL's Orlando Pride play their home games at Inter&Co Stadium.

Both games were announced in February but the Football Association has only just been able to announce the locations.

Tuchel's side will have a lengthy stint in Florida which will give the squad chance to acclimatise to what are expected to be sweltering conditions.

England will then head into camp in Kansas City, where they will be based at the Soccer Swope Village for the duration of the tournament.

The Missouri city was their preferred location, despite two of their group games and several potential knockout matches being on the east coast.

Swope Soccer Village is one of the training bases of MLS side Sporting Kansas City and has state-of-the-art facilities.

England are in Group L, meaning they will be among the last sides to take to the field in the tournament.

They begin against Croatia in Dallas on June 17, six days after the tournament opener, then head to Boston to take on Ghana on June 23 before closing their group stage against Panama in New Jersey on June 27.

England have not played New Zealand since a tour Down Under in 1991, winning 1-0 and 2-0 under Graham Taylor.

They have met Costa Rica more recently, suffering defeat in the disappointing 2014 World Cup group stage and then winning in a home friendly ahead of the 2018 edition.

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Preparations for the tournament began in earnest last with Wembley friendlies against Uruguay and Japan, which threw up more questions than answers for Tuchel.

A second-string squad drew 1-1 with the South Americans before a team bereft of Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham then lost 1-0 to the Asian side.

Information from PA contributed to this story.

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