{"id":473479,"date":"2026-02-11T19:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/473479\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T19:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:37:11","slug":"locked-in-all-whites-to-face-england-on-eve-of-fifa-mens-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/473479\/","title":{"rendered":"Locked in! All Whites to face England on eve of FIFA Men’s World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand Football have confirmed the All Whites will play England in Florida so both teams can tune up before the start of the FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

New Zealand Football and England\u2019s FA have announced the game will go ahead on Sunday June 7,\u00a0 2026, nine days before the All Whites face Iran in their opening game at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur strategy over the last year has been to take on top-ranked sides to ensure we are in the best place to perform at the tournament, and this match gives us a final opportunity to really test ourselves against one of the favourites,\u201d New Zealand head coach Darren Bazeley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngland are a great side with big names all over the pitch, but we want our players to face that type of challenge so we can work collectively to find solutions against top teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis match should be a great occasion but also a critical part of our final preparation before we face Iran in Los Angeles at the FIFA World Cup 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

England are #4 in the FIFA men\u2019s world rankings while New Zealand are #85.<\/p>\n

The venue and kick-off time for the match have yet to be confirmed but it will take place in Florida. Media reports in the United Kingdom have suggested a potential venue is the 69,000-seat Raymond James Stadium in Tampa,<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Whites and England in talks for World Cup warm-up in Tampa, reports say<\/a> >>>><\/p>\n

Four days after playing New Zealand, England will take on Costa Rica in their final warm-up game before facing Croatia in their first game at the tournament.<\/p>\n

New Zealand Football CEO Andrew Pragnell said:\u00a0\u201c2026 is already a huge year for the game but this match against one of the biggest and strongest teams in the world is a fantastic addition.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost this game presents a performance challenge which the team wanted to take on to make sure they are in the best place to perform so that was our priority, but we also know Kiwis love facing England in any sport so this should be a great match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis match highlights the significance of our international team strategy over the last few years, where we play the full cycle, every international window and increasingly against top-tier ranked nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s next international fixtures will be against Finland and Chile in late March, when Auckland\u2019s Eden Park hosts the four-nation FIFA Series.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Eden Park booked for final All Whites home games ahead of FIFA World Cup<\/a> >>>><\/p>\n

READ MORE: How to buy your tickets for All Whites\u2019 games against Finland and Chile<\/a> >>>><\/p>\n

Fixtures
\nFIFA Series<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Games to be played on Friday March 27, 2026<\/p>\n

Chile v Cape Verde
Eden Park, Auckland, 4pm<\/p>\n

New Zealand v Finland
Eden Park, Auckland, 7pm<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Games to be played on Monday March 30, 2026<\/p>\n

Cape Verde v Finland
Eden Park, Auckland, 4pm<\/p>\n

New Zealand v Chile
Eden Park, Auckland, 7pm<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

World Cup warm-up<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game to be played on Sunday June 7, 2026 (NZT)<\/p>\n

New Zealand v England
Venue TBC, Florida, kick-off time TBC<\/p>\n

FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game to be played on Tuesday June 16, 2026 (NZT)<\/p>\n

Iran v New Zealand
SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, Los Angeles, 1pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game to be played on Monday June 22, 2026 (NZT)<\/p>\n

Egypt v New Zealand
BC Place, Vancouver, 1pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game to be played on Saturday June 27, 2026 (NZT)<\/p>\n

Belgium v New Zealand
BC Place, Vancouver, 3pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

The 2026 FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup draw<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD: Here\u2019s the match schedule for the 2026 FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup as a PDF<\/a>\u00a0>>>>\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Whites drawn to play Belgium, Egypt and Iran at FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup<\/a>\u00a0>>>><\/p>\n

This story was first published on February 12, 2026.<\/p>\n

More football stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand Football have confirmed the All Whites will play England in Florida so both teams can tune…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[241441,81489,64,63,126352,596,85],"class_list":["post-473479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-2026-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-all-whites","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}