Just three police officers set to look after 10,000 England fans at the World Cup

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Content writer covering football, formula 1 and movies

Just three police officers will travel with the 10,000 England fans set to descend on North America for the 2026 World Cup this summer.

The tournament takes place across the United States, Canada and Mexico, though all of England's group stage matches versus Croatia, Ghana and Panama are in the US.

For the last European Championships in Germany in 2024, 40 police officers were sent to accompany England fans but the German government, crucially, funded the deployment of those extra officers.

The US has refused to provide funding which has resulted in three "spotters" looking after 10,000 travelling fans this summer.

"We would like more [officers]," national football lead Chief Constable Mark Roberts told BBC Sport.

"If there was more there we could try and reduce the risk and make it a bit easier for everyone, but it is what it is and we'll clearly do the best we can with the resources we deploy.

"In Germany we sent 40, because that was the ask of the Germans and they funded it.

"In this case the Americans are not are sold on the idea of the mobile delegations. They're not funding it, so it'll be a smaller deployment.

"We're not criticising that, it's their operation, they'll police it. We see the benefit of spotters, as I think most of the European countries do, because it gives us the opportunity to have a greater coverage of really good experienced people who will liaise with the supporters and the FA.

"But if we want to monitor fans leaving the city centre and then be there to receive them at the ground, you can't be in two places at once. So it limits our ability to do that."

Roberts believes that, ideally, at least six spotters should be present at every England game - two covering the city, two covering transportation to and from the game and two within the stadium itself.

"We know fan behaviour. The States isn't necessarily a football fan culture in the same way. It's very different", the Chief Constable added.

"There are 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the US, so they will have had different exposure to crowds managing things.

"The behaviour of our fans in tournaments over recent years has been pretty well exemplary, so we start from a good place. I think one of the key reasons we're so keen to send a team out there is that it gives us the opportunity to brief local law enforcement.

"So we always like to be there to communicate to fans if their behaviour is causing offence. Equally to say to local law enforcement, 'this isn't a problem. This is normal behaviour'. So we're going to be more limited in that."

The UK Football Policing Unit stated that between 12,000 and 15,000 England fans will be at each of England's three group matches in Dallas, Boston and New Jersey.

This is despite the ongoing criticism aimed at FIFA regarding the exorbitant prices of World Cup match tickets.