Copa del Mundo 2026: Inglaterra se prepara para amistoso contra Costa Rica, disputa de visados en Irán, última noticia de Lamine Yamal: noticias de fútbol en vivo.

The Scottish Football Association has defended its actions over a cancelled friendly after Scotland head coach Steve Clarke was branded “unprofessional†by Norway counterpart Stale Solbakken.

The teams are both based in North Carolina for their World Cup campaigns and planned a closed-doors match at Scotland's training ground in Charlotte on Monday.

But the Norwegian Football Federation announced on Sunday it had been called off because of injuries in the Scotland camp. Solbakken spoke out after his side drew 1-1 with Scotland's Group C rivals Morocco.

A Scottish FA spokesperson said: “The behind-closed-doors training game was organised and arranged between the respective team managers – not the head coaches – and this was the same process we followed when we regrettably had to cancel on Saturday.

“We have had some injuries during our previous friendlies and when it became apparent that a training game would bring greater risk than potential preparatory reward, we alerted the Norway team manager as soon as possible.

“We believe this was the right and consistent process. The game was also due to be behind closed doors and not announced publicly – so we were surprised when news of the game broke via Norwegian media.â€

Christian Eriksen is back home and “doing well†after collapsing during Denmark's friendly against Ukraine on Sunday. The midfielder wrote on Sunday that the weekend's incident was very different to the one suffered when he suffered a cardiac arrest in 2021 during a match against Finland.

It's all fun and games in the Scotland camp.

Jamie Jackson and Jacob Steinberg provide the latest on Elliot Anderson's future.

I personally can't see him ending up anywhere other than Manchester City.

Newcastle are close to completing a move for Reims goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen, the Press Association understands.

It is understood the Magpies have agreed an initial fee in the region of £18.5million with the Ligue 2 club for the 20-year-old as they look to reshape their goalkeeping department.

Loan signing Aaron Ramsdale has returned to parent club Southampton and John Ruddy and Max Thompson will leave the club when their contracts expire at the end of this month.

Ramsdale challenged Nick Pope for a place in Eddie Howe's starting line-up last season, while Greece international Odysseas Vlachodimos spent the campaign on loan at Sevilla in Spain. However, Newcastle, who lost out to Manchester City in the race to sign James Trafford last summer, have made an early move for a France Under-21 international with a blossoming reputation.

The Magpies, who endured a desperately difficult transfer window last summer amid the Alexander Isak saga, are keen to do their business in a far more straightforward fashion this time around, with sporting director Ross Wilson leading the way.

Anthony Gordon's £69.3m departure for Barcelona provided evidence they are in no mood to allow matters to be drawn out and, while landing a replacement for the England international – they have been heavily linked with Osasuna's Victor Munoz – may be the main priority, they are working on several different fronts.

We have Michael Butler on Football Daily duty today. What a busy man he has been.

Award-winning Somali referee Omar Artan, set to be the first from his country to officiate at the World Cup finals, was denied entry to the United States, a sports ministry official told AFP on Monday.

It was not immediately clear why Artan was barred from entering the US at Miami International Airport, but Somalia is one of several countries on a travel ban list introduced by President Donald Trump's administration.

“Omar Artan is among Africa's most respected referees and deserves the support of the entire football community,†Ciise Aden Abshir, a senior advisor to Somalia's Ministry of Youth and Sports and a former national team captain, told AFP.

Artan had a valid visa for the US, Abshir said. He has flown back to Istanbul, where he has been staying. “Denying him entry to the United States and preventing him from officiating scheduled matches harms not only him personally but also undermines football's commitment to fairness, merit, and the spirit of fair play,†Abshir added.

Artan was among the 52 referees announced by Fifa to officiate. AFP

If you like an insight into liveblogging, my five-year-old daughter is currently sleeping on the sofa next to me after being sent home from school early. I am a committed professional.

The Democratic Republic of Congo will play their final World Cup warm-up against Chile in France on Tuesday, after a Spanish town refused to host the match due to concerns over the Ebola outbreak.

The match was originally scheduled to take place in the southern Spanish town of La Linea de la Concepcion, but the mayor, Juan Franco, issued a ban as a “precautionary measure†due to the Ebola outbreak.

The World Health Organization declared an international health emergency over an Ebola outbreak which was first reported on May 15 in northeastern Congo.

According to the WHO, there have been more than 500 confirmed cases, including dozens of deaths, recorded in the DRC and neighbouring Uganda.

Despite the concerns, Congolese football officials insist that none of the players called up for the national team are based in the country. The squad has been training in Marbella, southern Spain in recent days and set off on Monday for Orleans in central France. AFP

I can't believe I was overlooked to write this …

Anthony emails: “Do you remember where you were on 7 May 2019. Short corner. Goodness gracious, Divock, what have you done! Shame to see his career flame out so young, but didn't it burn bright that night against Barcelona!â€

I was watching it on TV, I can remember that.

We should all remember what a great World Cup Fabio Grosso had in 2006. Nick Miller (what ever happened to him?) provides the nostalgia.

Fiorentina have appointed former Italy defender Fabio Grosso as manager, the Serie A club said on Monday, with the 48-year-old signing a two-year contract.

Grosso, who scored the winning penalty for Italy in the shootout win over France at the 2006 World Cup final, began his managerial career in Serie B with Bari and Hellas Verona, before taking charge of Brescia, Sion, Frosinone and Olympique Lyonnais.

His last role came at Sassuolo, where he won promotion in his first campaign, and after guiding them to mid-table safety in Serie A last season, Grosso left the club by mutual agreement on Thursday.

“I never like to make promises,†Grosso said in a Fiorentina statement, “but aware of the responsibilities that await me, I immediately feel I can guarantee seriousness, professionalism and involvement in building a team that has courage and ambition.†Fiorentina battled relegation in the most recent campaign, with Stefano Pioli sacked in November after a 10-game winless start. Paolo Vanoli took over and led them to a 15th-place finish, before departing the club on Friday. Reuters

One for the World Cup head coaches out there but it may be somewhat late if they have not already made their plans. Jonathan Wilson looks back at the innovate and not-so-innovate planning from some countries when travelling to foreign climes.

The manager Alf Ramsey, for all his gifts as a coach, was a xenophobe to the core. He had been a player in the England side that had lost to the USA in 1950, and remembered the greasy food served in Brazil with horror. A trip to Brazil in 1964 and a further tour of Latin America in 1969 had only heightened his distrust. England, he decided, would import their own bus, food and water. For the Mexicans, already irritated by a string of undiplomatic statements from Ramsey, this was the final straw. The authorities decided that the United Kingdom was beset by foot and mouth, so they impounded all the frozen meat at the docks then burned it, leaving England to subsist on Findus fishfingers and ready meals.

Austria are heavily reliant on people who had brief spells at Manchester United, from head coach Ralf Rangnick to Marcel Sabitzer.

Get the full lowdown with our in-depth preview.

And what a three hours they will be!

That's all from me on the blog. I'll hand back to Will Unwin, who will guide you through the next three hours. Cheers!

Former Liverpool striker Divock Origi has announced his retirement from football, aged just 31. The Belgian has been without a club since leaving Milan on 22 December 2025, more than 600 days after his last competitive appearance.

Origi announced his retirement via a post on The Players' Tribune:

You couldn't write a better movie than this. Hollywood, come talk to me!!!! Only God can do this. Only God can create a story like The Divock Origi Story. He gifted me with this unbelievable gift. And this gift went beyond anything I could ever have imagined.

I came into this world with the ball at my feet. That ball became my best friend. At night, when I slept, that ball was right next to me. I tucked it in at night. Then I'd close my eyes and picture them showing my highlights on Match of the Day. Football was my whole life. “What do you want to be when you grow up, Divock?†Pffttt, come on, do you even need to ask?

When you're young, and you're dreaming of being a pro, it's interesting. You visualize the high moments. You fantasize about it all. Got the whole script written. But you never really picture how it will end.

In your dreams, you never get older, you never go beyond. You're just suspended in time, on the pitch, in a moment of glory — winning the Prem or the Champions League, or getting capped in the World Cup. But the truth is that nothing lasts forever.

I look back and just shake my head in awe at everything I have accomplished in this game that I love. Even now, as I write this, it is unbelievable to me that the little boy, from Belgium and Kenya, achieved all his dreams.

All I can say is, thank you, God. Thank you, football.

Ofcom has written to social media companies to remind them of their responsibilities regarding online abuse and said it will monitor measures taken against “illegal hate content†during the World Cup.

After the experience of England players during the men's 2021 European Championship and the women's Euros last year, Ofcom has urged online platforms to make sure they have effective mitigations against abuse in place and that they are “adequately prepared for increased occurrence during the World Cupâ€.

Here's more on that from Paul MacInnes:

If you don't know a lot about Spain winger Víctor Muñoz, get to know. The Osasuna flyer is lightning quick and certainly has a striking look with that red crop of hair. I think this could be a breakout tournament for Muñoz, particularly if there are more opportunities on the left wing because of Nico Williams' injury.

Muñoz was at Barcelona in his youth but came through at Real Madrid before being sold to Osasuna in 2025. Madrid apparently have a buy-back clause for €40m. Newcastle are also reportedly interested in following the departure of Anthony Gordon.

Some further quotes from Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente regarding the fitness of Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams and Víctor Muñoz. The trio have been left out of the Spain squad to face Peru tomorrow in a warm-up match in Mexico, but De la Fuente is optimistic about Yamal's hamstring injury before their first World Cup group game against Cape Verde on 15 June.

All three are on track to be fit to play on the 15th. We do not know how many minutes they will be able to play. But Lamine's injury was different from Nico and Víctor. Each player will have their own recovery process and timeline. However, the most important thing is that, within the timeframe we had planned, the 15th is achievable and will be met, so that they are with us and are available to be selected at some point during the opening game.

There was additional concern for Rodri after the Manchester City man was clearly hurt after being clattered in training by Gavi. But De la Fuente played down the incident:

This is football. It's training. The players are very committed, and nobody has to apologise to anybody. Everything is fine. We know Gavi, he has that energy, that drive. That's one of his virtues. He has to control it and ration it. But I want this Gavi.

Into women's football now, as Lauren Hemp says the England squad are determined to bounce back from that hugely disappointing 4-0 defeat by Spain that saw the Lionesses miss the chance to secure automatic qualification for next summer's World Cup in Brazil.

Vitalii Mykolenko has signed a new three-year contract with Everton. The Ukraine international, who has made 157 appearances for the club since joining from Dynamo Kyiv in 2022, was approaching the end of his previous deal although Everton had the option of a one-year extension. That has now been replaced by a new deal that keeps the left back at Everton until June 2029.

Here's Rob Draper on Harry Kane's chances of winning the Ballon d'Or and why the World Cup might be critical to his chances of being named the best player in the world.

Israeli authorities have released a player on the Palestinian national women's football team following six days in detention after she was summoned by Jerusalem police, her mother has said.

Wissam Halawani said Israeli police released her daughter Rand Halawani, 20, on Sunday, with a five-day house arrest order. Wissam Halawani told AFP that she had “gone through very difficult times over the past few days†following her daughter's detention, and that she now felt “overwhelming joy†after her return home.

The Palestinian Football Association celebrated Halawani's release in a statement late Sunday.

“Rand Halawani breathes freedom … the release of our national women's team player after her arrest last Tuesday,†the association said in a social media post, accompanied by a poster showing her wearing the Palestinian national team's red kit.

Israeli police said last week that Halawani had been arrested along with an 18-year-old man in relation to an incident in Jerusalem in which objects were allegedly thrown from a balcony at demonstrators marching on a street below. AFP

Remarkably, there will be eight pairs of brothers at the World Cup, although only four of those pairs are part of the same team.

Those four are Lucas and Théo Hernández (France), Jurrien Timber and twin Quinten (Netherlands), Laros and Deroy Duarte (Cape Verde) and Leandro Bacuna and Juninho Bacuna (Curaçao).

The four pairs of siblings that will line-up for different nations are:

• Brian Brobbey (Netherlands) and half-brother Derrick Luckassen (Ghana).

• Désiré Doué (France) and Guéla Doué (Ivory Coast). The two could feasibly meet in the knockout rounds. Guéla Doué scored in a 2-1 warm-up victory over France last week, in which Désiré was an unused substitute.

• John Souttar (Scotland) and Harry Souttar (Australia).

• Iñaki Williams (Ghana) and Nico Williams (Spain).

Scotland's Steve Clarke has been branded “unprofessional†by Norway counterpart Ståle Solbakken. Solbakken hit out after Scotland cancelled a training-ground friendly against his side.

The game between the teams – who are both based in North Carolina for their World Cup campaigns – was planned for Monday but the Norwegian Football Federation announced on Sunday it had been called off because of injuries in the Scotland camp. Solbakken spoke out after his side drew 1-1 with Scotland's Group C rivals Morocco.

He told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK: “It was at least as surprising to me, and it is unprofessional of Scotland. It is unprofessional that the coach has not called me, that they use the team manager and call and say it after we have finished training.

“I don't think the injuries they're blaming came from the last training session. That's not the case. It's disappointing. It's unprofessional. But we have to live with that. That's why we adjusted a bit in the game.â€

Norway's team manager, former Fulham defender Brede Hangeland, told NRK: “We have been working on that match for many months. It is embarrassing to cancel it a couple of days before. We can't do anything about it, we just have to forget about it and make the best of it. But there has been a lot of organisation, agreements and gentlemen's agreements and then suddenly they don't want to. I think that was weak, so to speak.â€

Clarke told BBC Scotland: “It was just going to be a training game for an hour at our training ground. We picked up one or two niggles last week and decided it wasn't worth the risk.â€

Norway are based at Greensboro, about 90 miles from Scotland's training camp in Charlotte. PA Media

Scotland have arrived at their World Cup base in Charlotte in North Carolina after their impressive 4-0 win over Bolivia in Saturday's warm-up game. In fairness to the South Americans, the Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey is just 11 metres above sea level, whereas La Paz is 3,600 metres above sea level.

Here's what Scotland manager Steve Clarke had to say about his stay so far in the States:

Every experience we've had, training camp in Inter Miami, playing a game in New York, it's surreal really,†he told BBC Scotland. “I think the message to the lads is just to try and soak it all in, take it all in. Obviously, the message as the week goes on and it gets closer to the most competitive game will become more serious and more business, but just now it's just about trying to enjoy it, trying to embrace it and I think we're all doing that.

Well, me and some of the boys have been together now for seven years, so we've built a lot to get to this moment. To think of some of the low places that we have been and to be here at a World Cup with this group of players is just fantastic.â€

And here's what our reporter, Ewan Murray, had to say after that win over Bolivia.

If you want to make your own predictions, try our Bracketology game.

If Zohran Mamdani has got time to play it, so do you.

It's mentioned below that Germany could be a weakened force this tournament but I think the pessimism around the team is reinforced by how tough their group is: Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Curaçao and the fact that none of the starting attackers have been in top form recently: Leroy Sané, Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz, Florian Wirtz and Nick Woltemade have all struggled for consistency in recent months, but they are still excellent players that could produce something special at the tournament.

It was only a warm-up match but beating USA on Saturday will have given the Germans encouragement, especially as the only goal they conceded was this wondergoal from Antonee Robinson, which no amount of tactical planning can legislate for.

Hello everyone. Let's start with the latest findings from the University of Reading, obviously, who have – in lieu of any nearby octopuses – trained their supercomputer to predict the winner of the World Cup. Here are said findings:

Lionel Messi's Argentina are the most likely team to win the 2026 World Cup, but no single nation dominates the field the way previous champions have.

That is the verdict of a University of Reading supercomputer created by economist Professor James Reade, who has simulated every match of the 48-team tournament 10,000 times to produce probability estimates for each nation.

The model places Argentina at the top of the rankings, with France and Spain almost inseparable in second and third. Brazil and England are closely matched just behind them. Scotland, making a rare appearance at a World Cup finals, are ranked 27th of the 48 nations in the field.

Professor James Reade said: “Argentina come out on top, but what stands out most from this simulation is how tight it is at the summit. France and Spain are virtually indistinguishable in the model, and England aren't far behind either. It has been 60 years since England last lifted the trophy, and the simulation suggests football could finally be coming home.â€

“What also jumps out is the contrast between sides. Germany's defensive numbers are notably weaker than in previous cycles, while Portugal have one of the strongest attacking ratings in the whole field.

And here are the full rankings, according to Professor James Reade's supercomputer.

1 Argentina
2 France
3 Spain
4 Brazil
5 England
6 Portugal
7 Colombia
8 Netherlands
9 Germany
10 Uruguay
11 Japan
12 Croatia
13 Morocco
14 Belgium
15 Mexico
16 Ecuador
17 Switzerland
18 USA
19 Iran
20 South Korea
21 Algeria
22 Senegal
23 Canada
24 Australia
25 Turkey
26 Austria
27 Paraguay
28 Norway
29 Egypt
30 Sweden
31 Ivory Coast
32 Uzbekistan
33 Tunisia
34 Czech Republic
35 Panama
36 Scotland
37 Iraq
38 DR Congo
39 South Africa
40 Saudi Arabia
41 Jordan
42 New Zealand
43 Qatar
44 Cape Verde
45 Bosnia-Herzegovina
46 Ghana
47 Haiti
48 Curaçao

Thank you for joining me. Michael Butler is in the hotseat for the next few hours.

A bit of Premier League news: it promises to be a summer of change at Bournemouth, Andoni Iraola the headline departure. But now an incoming, with their former winger Matt Ritchie, who won promotion to the top flight with the club in 2015, replacing Simon Francis, also part of that title-winning team under Eddie Howe, as technical director. Ritchie joined third-tier Reading last season but the 36-year-old will now continue his career in the game off the pitch, working in a key recruitment role alongside the president of football operations, Tiago Pinto. The headline in this interview with Matt a year ago was somewhat prophetic:

Want to know more about Algeria? Of course you do.

Anders Vad Bruun emails: “From a Danish perspective, a certain Schmeichel the younger didn't do too badly, and the brothers Laudrup are sons of Finn Laudrup, who played 19 games in red and white and scored six goals from the right wing. And then there's Cesare and Paolo Maldini and Enrico/Federico Chiesa for the Italians… â€