England fans stunned as error-riddled stadium screen mangles ten players' names before New Zealand friendly

A garbled team sheet displayed on the big screen at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa left England fans bewildered before the Three Lions’ 1-0 friendly victory over New Zealand, with ten of the eleven names on the list containing errors.

Seven of the names fused two different England players together entirely: supporters were greeted with the likes of ‘Marc O’Reilly’, ‘Marcus Stones’, ‘Jordan Guehi’, ‘Morgan Anderson’, ‘Ollie Kane’, ‘Djed Bellingham’ and ‘Jarrell Rashford’. Defender Ezri Konsa’s name was merged with John Stones and misspelled as ‘Consa’ for good measure. Captain Harry Kane was reduced to simply ‘Harry’, while Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo appeared only as ‘Kobbie’.

England superfan Adam Price, who was in attendance, posted a photograph of the screen on X with the caption: ‘Sorry???’ He added: ‘What did the Americans do to our line up? This is not even AI.’

Fellow supporter Garford Beck, 64, from London — attending his tenth World Cup — was equally amused. ‘They got all the names wrong which was very funny,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if there was a glitch in the system or it was simply that they did not know the names. It was very strange and the weirdest ground that I have ever been to in all the years following England.’

Beck also noted the unusual surroundings of the stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which features a full-scale pirate ship in the stands. ‘The pirate ship fires its cannons when the Buccaneers have a touchdown,’ he said. ‘That pirate ship has to be a first for a football match.’

Despite the pre-match chaos on the scoreboard, England got the result they came for. Kane — however his name was rendered on screen — scored the only goal of the game in a scrappy contest, giving Thomas Tuchel’s side a winning start to their World Cup 2026 warm-up programme on US soil.

After the match, the squad was reunited with its Arsenal contingent, who had missed the opening days of training in Florida. Declan Rice was greeted by Anthony Gordon on arrival at the Belgrove Hotel in West Palm Beach, while Kane gave Bukayo Saka a warm embrace. England assistant manager Anthony Barry also welcomed Rice back to the group.