The Football Association is experiencing difficulties in securing suitable opposition for England’s World Cup warm-up games owing to their late start to the expanded 48-team tournament.
England open against Croatia on the last day of the first round of games on 17 June, six days after the first match between Mexico and South Africa, and Thomas Tuchel wants final preparation games as close to his team’s tournament kick-off as possible.
Tuchel is understood to have requested friendlies near England’s pre-tournament training camp in Florida on 6 and 10 June – the night before the World Cup starts – and finding high-calibre opponents for the latter date is proving particularly challenging.
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The head coach would ideally like matches against World Cup sides but Fifa regulations prevent participants from playing friendlies in the final five days before their first game of the tournament. That means only teams playing on 16 and 17 June – who will include two qualifiers from March’s intercontinental playoffs – could face England on 10 June.
The FA is in discussions with several national associations and confirmation of England’s opponents is expected this month. With its options limited, New Zealand, who have qualified, and Costa Rica, who have not, are understood to be under consideration.
England have been starved of top-class opposition under Tuchel, making the identity of friendly opponents more significant. The highest-ranked opponents England have played under Tuchel have been Senegal, who were 19th when they won 3-1 in Nottingham last summer, and the best team they have beaten according to the Fifa rankings are Wales, who were 30th at the time.
Fifa has relaxed its previous World Cup regulations that banned teams from playing from 48 hours before the start of the tournament, as a result of the expanded draw and elongated opening round. World Cup participants remain prevented from organising friendlies against sides in the same group, although this was never a consideration for England, whose group is completed by Ghana and Panama.
England’s late start to the World Cup has left also them facing a congested schedule, with eight games in 33 days if they reach the final, and a large amount of travelling. Their three group matches will take place in an 11-day period.
Tuchel wants to give his players a holiday at the end of the season, which has influenced his request for late friendlies, although anyone involved in the Champions League final on 30 May will be denied a break with the squad due to fly to Florida on 1 June.
England’s warm-up games are expected to take place in Orlando and Tampa before they move to Kansas City in advance of the start their tournament.
The FA has announced England will face Uruguay and Japan at Wembley in March in their final matches before Tuchel names his World Cup squad.
