Thursday 26th March 2026
Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina	FIFA World Cup 2026 Qualifying Semi-Final	19:45	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Italy v Northern Ireland	FIFA World Cup 2026 Qualifying Semi-Final	19:45	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Thursday 11th June 2026
Mexico v South Africa	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A	20:00	ITV1 / STV / ITVX / STV Player
Friday 12th June 2026
South Korea v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A	03:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Canada v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group B	20:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Saturday 13th June 2026
USA v Paraguay	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D	02:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Qatar v Switzerland	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group B	20:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Brazil v Morocco	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group C	23:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Sunday 14th June 2026
Haiti v Scotland	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group C	02:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Australia v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D	05:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Germany v Curacao	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E	18:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Netherlands v Japan	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group F	21:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Monday 15th June 2026
Ivory Coast v Ecuador	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E	00:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
TBC v Tunisia	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group F	03:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Spain v Cape Verde	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group H	17:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Belgium v Egypt	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group G	20:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Saudi Arabia v Uruguay	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group H	23:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Tuesday 16th June 2026
Iran v New Zealand	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group G	02:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
France v Senegal	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group I	20:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
TBC v Norway	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group I	23:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Wednesday 17th June 2026
Argentina v Algeria	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group J	02:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Austria v Jordan	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group J	05:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Portugal v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group K	18:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
England v Croatia	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group L	21:00	ITV1 / STV / ITVX / STV Player
Thursday 18th June 2026
Ghana v Panama	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group L	00:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Uzbekistan v Colombia	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group K	03:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
TBC v South Africa	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A	17:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Switzerland v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group B	20:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Canada v Qatar	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group B	23:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Friday 19th June 2026
Mexico v South Korea	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A	02:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
USA v Australia	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D	20:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Scotland v Morocco	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group C	23:00	ITV1 / STV / ITVX / STV Player
Saturday 20th June 2026
Brazil v Haiti	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group C	02:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
TBC v Paraguay	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D	05:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Netherlands v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group F	18:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Germany v Ivory Coast	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E	21:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Sunday 21st June 2026
Ecuador v Curacao	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E	01:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Tunisia v Japan	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group F	05:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Spain v Saudi Arabia	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group H	17:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Belgium v Iran	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group G	20:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Uruguay v Cape Verde	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group H	23:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Monday 22nd June 2026
New Zealand v Egypt	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group G	02:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Argentina v Austria	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group J	18:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
France v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group I	22:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Tuesday 23rd June 2026
Norway v Senegal	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group I	01:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Jordan v Algeria	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group J	04:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Portugal v Uzbekistan	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group K	18:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
England v Ghana	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group L	21:00	BBC One / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Wednesday 24th June 2026
Panama v Croatia	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group L	00:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Colombia v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group K	03:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Switzerland v Canada	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group B	20:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
TBC v Qatar	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group B	20:00	ITV TBC / ITVX
Morocco v Haiti	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group C	23:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Scotland v Brazil	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group C	23:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Thursday 25th June 2026
South Africa v South Korea	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A	02:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
TBC v Mexico	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A	02:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Curacao v Ivory Coast	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E	21:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Ecuador v Germany	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E	21:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Friday 26th June 2026
Japan v TBC	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group F	00:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website
Tunisia v Netherlands	FIFA World Cup 2026 Group F	00:00	BBC TBC / BBC iPlayer / BBC Sport Website

 

The FIFA World Cup Tournament

The FIFA World Cup is the ultimate competition for international football teams. Founded in 1930, the competition runs every four years and the destination of each tournament is predetermined by a bidding campaign where countries vie for the honour and privilege to hold it.

Qualification for the final tournament is through each of the six FIFA continental zones Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, and Europe and see’s the teams from these areas compete in groups to make the cut.

The World Cup Finals, as the tournament itself is known, features the 32 nations that qualified from their respective continental zones. Teams are split into 8 groups of 4 where each team plays each other once. On completion of the group stages the top two from each group then go on to the last 16 knockout phase. From there we progress to the quarter finals, the semi finals and then the final itself.

It has been announced that the 2026 World Cup will have 48 teams playing in 16 groups of three before progressing to a knockout stage featuring 32 teams.

Broadcasting

With a total audience of 26.29 billion worldwide viewers for the 2006 finals, The World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and broadcasting distribution is shared by many companies who try to ensure their unique take on events pleases their viewers.

Because of this reach it is a huge opportunity for sponsorship deals with giants like Adidas, McDonalds and Coca Cola tending to feature.

Winners

For the first 40 years of the tournament the winners got the Jules Rimet trophy but after Brazil won their third tournament in 1970 they were awarded the trophy with a new World Cup being designed. Weighing 13.6lb, the trophy is 75% 18 carat gold.

In the 20 World Cups to date only eight different nations have won the trophy with Brazil winning the most amount of times at five. Both Italy and Germany have won the title 4 times and Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, England and France have also won the World Cup.

The following shows the years that the trophy was held and who won;

1930

Uruguay

1934

Italy

1938

Italy

1950

Uruguay

1954

West Germany

1958

Brazil

1962

Brazil

1966

England

1970

Brazil

1974

West Germany

1978

Argentina

1982

Italy

1986

Argentina

1990

West Germany

1994

Brazil

1998

France

2002

Brazil

2006

Italy

2010

Spain

2014

Germany

Player Records

As you can imagine there are a number of important player records held during the history of the FIFA World Cup.

The most World Cup games played by any one player is held by Lothar Matthaus who has competed in 25 matches for Germany (and West Germany) from 1982 through to 1998. The player to have won the most World Cups is arguably the greatest footballer of all time, Pele. Pele won the World Cup with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

Pele also holds the record for the youngest player to play in the final when he was just 17years and 249 days when Brazil beat Sweden in 1958 (he also holds the records for the youngest goal scorer, youngest hat-trick scorer and youngest final scorer) . The Youngest player to have played in the tournament was Norman Whiteside who played for Northern Ireland at the age of 17 years and 41 days. The oldest player to have played at the World Cup was Colombia’s Faryd Mondragon who played in goal against Japan at the age of 43years and 3 days. Dino Zoff, the Italian goal keeper, holds the record for the oldest player in a final at 40 years and 133 days.

The overall leading goal scorer for the World Cup is the German leading scorer, Miroslav Klose. Klose scored 16 goals in 4 tournaments from 2002 to 2014. The most scored in any one tournament is held by the French striker Just Fontaine who scored 13 in 1958.

The most goals scored in any one match is held by former Rangers striker Oleg Salenko who netted five times against Cameroon in 1994. Honourable mention must go out to Australia’s Archie Thompson who scored an incredible 13 goals in the 2002 Oceanic qualifier against American Samoa.