England stars will be saving their scoring for the pitch — with WAGs banned from staying overnight at the team’s World Cup hotel.
Football chiefs have informed the squad to anticipate less time with loved ones during this tournament compared to previous editions, citing the demanding schedule and long distances between matches. Wives and girlfriends have been given the red card when it comes to crashing with their football partners at the Three Lions’ hotel in Kansas City.
Football authorities stated it would not be ‘appropriate’ as Thomas Tuchel’s team strives to end 60 years of heartbreak. This is not the first instance of WAGs being sidelined from intimate encounters during major football tournaments.
Ashlyn Castro, girlfriend of Jude Bellingham (Image: Icon Sport via Getty Images)
However, this time they have been truly relegated to the reserves — and are staying 1,700 miles away. They have not bothered to travel to England’s US tournament base and are instead holed up in Miami, Florida — a three-hour flight away.
They are scheduled 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 challenging, 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. However, the logistics of playing a World Cup across three vast countries — the US, Canada, and Mexico — has sidelined any mid-match action.
Tolami Benson, girlfriend of Bukayo Saka (Image: Getty Images)
This 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 connect 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 romance. 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.
Tolami Benson (Image: 2024 AMA Sports Photo Agency)
Some with school-age children 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 flown 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 flying 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.”
England manager Thomas Tuchel (centre) boarding a plane at Birmingham Airport ahead of the team's departure to the United States (Image: Nick Potts/PA Wire)
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 (corr), then 20, and her law student cousin Lara Clausen, 19, met the pair online before hooking up with them in person 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 around the England team to protect the players from Covid-19.
An England training session ahead of the group games (Image: The FA via Getty Images)
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.
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