Report: England Scouting Kansas City for World Cup Base Camp

In 2026, the FIFA World Cup is coming back to the United States. The US will co-host with their neighbors in Canada and Mexico. The joint hosting venture has 16 cities hosting games and Kansas City was one of 10 US cities to get a game. Six games in fact, including a prestigious quarterfinal matchup.

The tournament will run from June 11th through July 19th, but who plays in what groups will be determined on December 5th when the groups are drawn in Washington, D.C.

17 teams have qualified so far, with many more to be decided in the expanded 48 team World Cup. Luckily for the US, they don’t need to qualify since they are a host nation. Based on recent results, things seem grim.

Those 48 teams are going to need somewhere to setup their base camps. The USMNT are going to be based out of California likely, but what about the other 47 nations? A new report from The Athletic has England scouting Kansas City as a site.

“The English Football Association will not finalize any arrangement until their place in the draw is confirmed but delegates have been on recces* to various sites. Their final decision may be decided by the draw, but representatives have visited Kansas City. There are three training sites listed on FIFA’s guide, which are the Kansas Current (NWSL) facility, the Sporting Kansas City (MLS) facility and the University of Kansas.”

*recces is apparently a very British word for reconnaissance. 

This builds on the back of an earlier report from the KC Star that England were considering Kansas City for their central location in the country. They obtained that news because England manager Thomas Tuchel was complaining of a new FIFA rule that requires teams to move their training based on where their next games are. No longer will one team setup camp in a city and stay there for the duration of the tournament, though that ruling is being disputed.

All of this aligns with Sporting Kansas City President and CEO Jake Reid telling Soren Petro on The Program on 810 WHB that he thinks, “we’ll get at least two [top nations].”

There is no saying England will be one of those teams, as The Athletic also mentioned Charlotte as a possibility, but some big teams are surely coming to KC. With the elite facilities that Sporting KC have and that the KC Current are actively expanding on, Kansas City should be the center of a lot of World Cup action on and off the pitch.

Also, in case you missed it, tickets for the World Cup go on sale this week. If you haven’t already started making arrangements, now is the time.