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England are set to be based at the Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City for this year’s World Cup campaign.
World governing body Fifa is not likely to rubber-stamp the location of each nation’s training facilities until the start of February.
But the Football Association has submitted a request to stay in the Missouri city, with the state-of-the-art Swope facility nominated as their first-choice daily training base.
While Fifa is still to officially confirm each nation’s chosen base, it is understood England are very likely to be allocated their preferred location.
England’s Group L matches against Croatia, Ghana and Panama will be played in Arlington (Texas), Foxborough (near Boston) and East Rutherford (New Jersey) respectively.
Head coach Thomas Tuchel’s team will travel to each location from their Kansas City base and then return after each game.
It remains to be seen whether England decide to remain in Missouri should they make it through the group stage.
They have explored the option of “following the games” during the knockout stages, meaning they would set up a temporary base in the vicinity of where their elimination games are played.
England will hold their pre-tournament training camp in Florida, where they will play two games before travelling to Kansas City.
‘Results dictate mood of camp’ – analysis
The best camp is one that’s winning. You can have the best facilities in the world but results will dictate the mood.
It does feel like being in a bubble. You’re away from home and your family and part of the biggest sporting event in the world but at the same time kept away from the action.
I loved it, though, because you knew that the next few weeks could be some of the best times of your life.
Different England managers have tried different approaches. Graham Taylor banned the newspapers at Euro ’92 but we didn’t need to be told we were playing badly. Finishing bottom of the group told us that. Results!
Things were more relaxed under Terry Venables at Euro ’96. He was a brilliant man-manager and we had a great team spirit but again the results and performances played a big part in that.
There was no social media of course back then so the players these days have to find a different way to cope and block out the noise. Gareth Southgate was open with the media and it worked to a degree but we still saw criticism about the performances even when they were getting the results.
It remains to be seen how Thomas Tuchel will run the camp but it’s such a complicated World Cup in terms of travel and climate.
I know the FA will have been planning for every different scenario so as a player you trust they’ve got it right and then it’s up to you to deliver those results.
