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Planet Football

·11 June 2026

Watching every possible moment of the World Cup is one of the purest pleasures football fans look forward to every four years. However, the 2026 edition, set to take place across North America, will pose a real challenge for fans in Europe and the United Kingdom due to the tricky time zones.

For supporters based in the UK and across Europe, many of the marquee matches will be played while they’re fast asleep. The upside is that modern viewing options provide plenty of ways to catch up — though they also come with a few complications that need planning around.

Here’s our step-by-step guide to keeping your mornings spoiler-free and catching up on all the overnight World Cup drama the moment you wake up.

Before diving into highlight platforms, start with the basics. Does your car radio automatically tune to talkSPORT or BBC 5 Live? Do you usually have rolling news on while eating breakfast? Time to change those habits if you want to avoid early morning heartbreak.

Most crucially, consider what appears on your phone screen when you reach out bleary-eyed to hit snooze on your alarm.

Perhaps you can politely suggest that the night owls or new parents in your Five-A-Side WhatsApp group create a separate thread if they want to discuss Sweden vs Tunisia while you’re sleeping peacefully.

If that’s not possible and your friends can’t resist sending messages at odd hours, simply mute those chats. You can always scroll through the conversation later — and, let’s be honest, you’re probably not missing much.

This is an easy one to overlook but can make a big difference.

Think about every possible source of spoilers. If you’re reading this, your phone probably has multiple live score or football updates apps installed.

They’re great during the regular season, but during the World Cup, if you want to stay spoiler-free, they become your biggest enemy. Disable push notifications from any apps that might reveal scores or match outcomes.

Speaking from personal experience, nothing is more frustrating than getting a full-time alert from The Athletic while you’re still watching the final tense minutes of a game on a slightly delayed Sky Go stream.

Of course, once you’ve caught up, Planet Football and the wider Planet Sport network will have you covered with reactions, quizzes, rankings, and analyses. Make sure to check back with us first thing.

In a nod to Diana Ross and the last World Cup hosted in the United States, the BBC and ITV have missed a golden opportunity by not offering a consolidated highlights show.

No service has ever been more essential, and yet it doesn’t exist. Truly disappointing.

Both broadcasters will upload match highlights to their online streaming platforms, but before the action begins, be cautious. Navigating to the right match without seeing spoilers can be tricky.

They both have a frustrating habit of revealing match results through headlines, titles, and thumbnails. Hopefully, this will change before the tournament, but if avoiding spoilers is your top priority, tread carefully in the first few days.

As a side note — and this isn’t an ad, just a bit of friendly advice — consider taking the week-long trial of ITVX Premium, or pay the six pounds for a full month. It’ll be worth it if you’re avoiding the free version with its buffering issues and unavoidable adverts during crucial moments of a knockout tie.

If you’ve ever missed a match due to other commitments, you’ve probably come across FootballHighlights on Reddit.

It provides links to various trustworthy and not-so-trustworthy sources (tip: use an adblocker) for spoiler-free highlights from the latest games. The best part? It doesn’t even hint at whether a match went into extra time or penalties during the knockout stages.

Expect that subreddit to experience record-breaking traffic in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere, a new website called ‘Spoiler Free Football’ has recently been launched. While we can’t personally vouch for it yet, the concept sounds brilliant in theory, and we’re eager to see how it performs in practice.

Add it to your bookmarks and give it a trial run with the South Korea vs Czech Republic game tomorrow morning.

If you have both the time and resources to rewatch full matches without spoilers, we envy you — that’s the dream scenario for any football fan.

Instead of getting caught up in juggling various online highlight sources, make sure you’re maximising your own TV setup.

If you’ve got Sky Plus, make use of it. Plan ahead and record the matches in advance. While it might feel counterintuitive for live sport, it’s an absolute lifesaver for late-night fixtures.

Depending on your provider and setup, you might also be able to schedule recordings through Virgin Media, EE TV, or Freeview Plus.

If all else fails and you want a truly nostalgic experience reminiscent of USA 94, dust off the old VCR from the attic.

You might need a degree in computer science to figure out how to program it, and perhaps an adapter to connect a SCART cable to your HD television, but that’s part of the fun. Who needs 4K anyway?