England pubs granted extended hours for World Cup quarter-final against Norway in Miami

Pubs across England and Wales will be permitted to stay open until 30 minutes past the final whistle of England’s World Cup quarter-final against Norway on Saturday, the government has confirmed. The fixture kicks off at 10pm BST from Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, with ministers invoking flexible licensing laws to extend the original 2am cut-off.

Policing minister Sarah Jones cited the weather disruption during England’s previous match as the reason for the additional allowance. “England fans deserve the chance to watch every minute of the quarter-final together, and that is exactly what our extension guarantees,” she said. “After the weather delay we saw before the Mexico game, we want to give fans and venues complete certainty that no-one will miss a moment of the action.”

England’s round-of-16 tie against Mexico at the Azteca Stadium was delayed by an hour due to storms, with licensing hours already extended into the early morning for that game. Thomas Tuchel’s side came through 3-2 to set up the last-eight clash with Norway.

The quarter-final presents its own environmental challenges. Temperatures in Miami are forecast to reach 32 degrees Celsius at kick-off — 5pm local time — and England will also have to contend with Erling Haaland in what shapes up as the tournament’s most demanding test yet.

Tuchel acknowledged the difficulty of preparing for such conditions. “Science says that we banked a lot of heat training,” the England head coach said. “That will help us. This week we spent quite some minutes in the heat and then we will go from there. Subjectively, for me, it’s always like ‘can you really prepare for that?’”

England’s pre-tournament camp in Florida was designed specifically to acclimatise the squad to the heat, though Tuchel noted with some irony that rain greeted them on three of their five training sessions and a roof covered them for the other two.

Despite the obstacles, Tuchel struck a forward-looking tone after the Mexico victory. “I think we took a big step in our last match, but it was only a step,” he said. “We’re still hungry, we still have dreams, and we still have a big goal to play for. The next step is to win the quarter-final.”