England stars will be saving their scoring for the pitch - with WAGs outlawed from overnights at the team’s World Cup hotel. Football chiefs told the squad to expect less contact with loved ones during this tournament compared to previous ones due to the hectic schedule and vast distances between matches. Wives and girlfriends have got the red card from crashing with their footy fellas in the Three Lions’ hotel in Kansas City.
Football chiefs said it would not be ‘appropriate’ as Thomas Tuchel’s team battles to end 60 years of hurt. It is not the first time WAGs have been relegated to the sex sidelines during major football tournaments. But this time they have been truly consigned to the reserves - and are staying 1,700 miles away. They have not bothered travelling to England’s US tournament base and are instead shacked up in Miami, Florida - a three-hour flight away.
They are due to fly to England's group matches in Dallas, Boston and New York and will meet up with players immediately after the games. But even contact the day after matches would be difficult as the Lions - late starters in the tournament - suddenly face three games in 10 days with over 7,000 miles of flights in between. Tuchel is said to be relaxed about players’ contact with their loved ones. But the logistics of playing a World Cup across three vast countries - the US, Canada and Mexico - has sidelined any mid-match action.
It is a far cry from the 2006 World Cup where WAGs - then including pop stars Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Tweedy - took over a hotel in Baden-Baden, Germany, close to the England base. In Qatar in 2022 - where all matches were played within 50 miles - it was easier for players to hook up with their loved ones on rest days with barbecues laid on at the team hotel. But at this tournament the schedule means England could play five games in 17 days depending on results - leaving little time for love. Only about half of the 26-strong squad will have WAGs present.
The current pack of WAGs includes LA-born model and influencer Ashlyn Castro, 28, the stunning girlfriend of Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham. Also among the pack is Katie Goodland, the wife of England captain Harry Kane, 32, and Bukayo Saka's influencer fiancée Tolami Benson. Some with school-age children who may come out later in the tournament. Others have taken the view that - with such limited opportunities for getting together - there is little point in travelling. Those who have jetted to the States headed to Florida where England were based for pre-tournament acclimatisation.
Couples were able to mingle freely in Miami which is packed with trendy restaurants, designer boutiques and home to one of the world’s best beaches. It also boasts plenty to occupy the kids with Walt Disney World nearby. A source said some WAGs who had been considering jetting to Kansas changed their minds when they saw what Florida had to offer. “They realised there would be little point in going to Kansas when they would hardly see their partners,” they said. “They would stand more chance by becoming flight attendants.”
The Football Association declined to comment. But a source close to the squad said it ‘wouldn’t be appropriate’ for WAGs to stay in the team hotel and the rule had been in place ‘for a long time’. In 2020 Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden were sent home in disgrace for smuggling women into England’s hotel in Iceland in breach of quarantine rules. Icelandic model and beauty queen Nadia Sif Lindal Gunnarsdottir, then 20, and her law student cousin Lara Clausen, 19, met the pair online before hooking up with them in the flesh after the Three Lions flew out for a Nations League match.
The women said they spent a 'good night' with the players who were 'perfect gentlemen'. But the hook-up breached a quarantine 'bubble' thrown round the England team to protect the players from Covid-19. When Gareth Southgate found out, Greenwood and Foden were banned from breakfasting or training with the rest of the team, kicked out of the squad and told they would have to fly back to the UK separately while the others went on to play Denmark. They were each fined £1,360 by Icelandic police for breaking Covid rules. Southgate said they had been 'naive'. The FA apologised to their Icelandic counterparts. An England team spokesman said it had been an “unacceptable breach of our protocol”. “They have both apologised for their serious lack of judgement,” they added. The FA apologised to their Icelandic counterparts and assured Denmark officials the rest of the squad had remained 'isolated'. Neither Foden nor Greenwood is in the current squad.
