Tennis
FIFA World Cup 2026
Media
Wimbledon

Wimbledon Won’t Show a Single World Cup Match—Not Even to Its Players

The oldest Grand Slam once again shows how uncompromising it can be when it comes to its traditions and its devotion to tennis.
by Redazione Undici 2 July 2026 at 14:43
“Football is coming home”, the England fans sing whenever the national team looks capable of going deep in a major tournament. At Wimbledon that sentence passes through almost without friction, then fades, as if it had arrived in the wrong building. The All England Club continues as it always does, with a kind of sealed attention that doesn’t really register what is happening outside its own rhythm, and this holds even through the 2026 World Cup weeks. Tuchel’s England are in the round of 16 against Mexico, but nothing shifts in practice: no football on any of the big screens around the grounds, not even in the marginal spaces where exceptions usually slip through elsewhere.

It is a stance that feels slightly out of step with the composition of the crowd, which is never really one thing. “No football matches will be shown on any of the large screens within the grounds,” Sally Bolton, the club’s chief executive, told British media, with the kind of phrasing that closes the matter rather than opens it. It includes Henman Hill, where people normally gather in a loose, almost improvised geography around the tennis, and it extends further than expected, into the player areas as well, where Raf Jodar or Coco Gauff might have had a match running in the background, or might not have cared at all, depending on the hour.

Wimbledon remains Wimbledon, though that phrase tends to mean slightly different things depending on when you hear it. Elsewhere there is more elasticity: Derbyshire County Cricket Club will stream England’s World Cup match before its own fixture north of Birmingham, shifting the start time a little, not dramatically, just enough for both events to coexist without fully colliding, even if the overlap is still there in practice.

At Wimbledon there is only a partial loosening, almost accidental in tone. The mobile phone rule near the courts will not be enforced with the usual strictness, so screens appear and disappear in pockets of attention during play, between points, sometimes without anyone really acknowledging it. During England matches it becomes visible in small waves, as it already did at 17:00 London time when Tuchel’s side played the Democratic Republic of Congo in the round of 16, nothing coordinated, just a collective drift towards the same information.

Wimbledon stays Wimbledon, although even that sounds more stable than it feels up close. And it is still not entirely clear what happens if England reach the semi-final and the scheduling folds into the women’s final, or the other way around, depending on how the day settles into itself.

>

Read also