England's World Cup Preparations Derailed by Phantom 'Leaks' and Media Nonsense

Thomas Tuchel's England camp is being buffeted by a perfect storm of media invention, numerical confusion, and the kind of sensationalism that makes you wonder whether football journalism has any standards left.

The actual news is straightforward enough: IFAB has introduced a new rule allowing VAR to intervene when an attacking player commits a foul at a set-piece before the ball is live, if a goal or penalty subsequently results. FIFA refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina cited Adam Wharton's block on a defender before Benjamin White's goal against Uruguay in March as the catalyst for the change.

"We try to solve this and let's see what can be next," Collina explained. "It would only be for fouls committed by an attacker. There is a clear foul committed against the defender. The attacker clearly goes and illegally blocks the opponent; his only objective is to prevent the defender from being able to defend against his opponent. We are convinced that this goal cannot stand, it is completely unfair."

Fair point, sensibly made. Except the tabloids had other ideas.

The Arsenal Invention

Enter the Mail Online with a headline about an "anti-Arsenal law" being introduced for the World Cup. Trouble is, nobody—not IFAB, not FIFA, not Collina, not a single manager or player—has actually called it that. The phrase vanishes entirely after the opening paragraphs. It's pure editorial invention, a clickbait construction designed to generate engagement by suggesting England's biggest asset might be neutered. The rule change has absolutely nothing to do with Arsenal's playing style; it's about preventing defenders from being illegally blocked before set-pieces. But "anti-Arsenal law" drives more traffic than "anti-Wharton law," doesn't it?

The Great 'Leak' That Wasn't

Then we have England's squad numbers for 2026, which FIFA officially published. This spawned a cascade of headlines treating the information as though it had been smuggled out by a whistleblower.

"England squad numbers 'LEAKED' in huge hint over Thomas Tuchel's starting XI for World Cup 2026," screamed The Sun, quotation marks doing absolutely no work whatsoever. Why put "LEAKED" in quotes when you're not attributing the phrase to anyone, and when the information came directly from a document FIFA themselves released?

The Daily Mirror downgraded it to having merely "emerged" by the third paragraph, conveniently avoiding any mention of where it actually came from. The Mail Online managed the impressive feat of calling them both a "leak" and a "confirmation" within the same article—apparently those terms are now interchangeable.

The Arsenal Numbers Game

Speaking of numbers, there's something peculiar about how they get deployed when Arsenal are involved. The Mirror ran with: "Arsenal could sell EIGHT players to fund Rogers and Alvarez transfers." By the opening paragraph, though, it's clarified that "as many as eight Arsenal players are in contention to be sold." Those aren't the same thing, are they? Eight will be sold versus eight might possibly be sold are rather different propositions. Hundreds of thousands, up to one million, and over one million are all intrinsically different figures, yet Arsenal stories seem to scramble these distinctions with alarming regularity.

Astrology and Other Nonsense

The Sun also wheeled out an astrologer claiming to know how far England will go at the World Cup. Inbaal Honigman's forecast? Two players will be sent off, and one "free-spirited England player" will pick up a couple of yellow cards he won't particularly mind about. Declan Rice will apparently be affected by retrograde motion and clip compilations will follow.

The prediction included a "real high point" between June 19th and 21st when the Moon enters Virgo and Tuchel's "neat and organised Virgo techniques" align with the stars. England's actual fixtures are June 17th and 23rd. Close enough for astrology, presumably.

The Icon That Isn't

Finally, there's Saido Berahino taking a coaching role with Burundi just before the tournament. The Sun called him a "Premier League icon." He absolutely is not. And yes, it's technically "just days before World Cup"—nine days, to be exact. Burundi won't even be there.

This is what passes for football journalism in 2026: phantom leaks of official documents, invented rule nicknames, numerical gymnastics, and calling journeymen strikers "icons." Somewhere in among the noise, there's an actual World Cup to be played.