The Football Association is worried England’s World Cup training ground in Kansas City lacks privacy and will try to erect protective fences to guard against the team being spied on by rivals.
The English game is in the grip of the spygate scandal, which has led to Southampton being expelled from Saturday’s Championship playoff final for illegally surveilling the training sessions of their opponents, and the FA will not take any chances when England arrive at their World Cup base on 13 June.
The governing body’s first choice of training ground was Sporting Kansas City’s performance centre but Argentina secured it. The hierarchy were happy to take the Swope Soccer Village, which is the home of Sporting Kansas City’s academy teams and a 20-minute drive from the hotel in which England will stay while at the tournament.
England will fly in and out of Kansas City for all of their matches. Their opener is against Croatia in Dallas on 17 June. The FA will add an outdoor gym and a players’ lounge to the facility at Swope but the training ground is a little open and extra security measures will need to be taken.
Thomas Tuchel was asked whether the FA was doing anything to stop rivals from spying on them. He responded by smiling, holding out an imaginary bow and drawing back an arrow. “We will take care of that, of course,” he said. “As good as possible and not in a crazy way.
“It is what it is. As you all know, Argentina had the first option to choose a very secluded high-end facility in Kansas. So like always, you try to influence what you can influence. We are very happy with the training facility, especially what the FA and all the people in charge made now out of it. It suits all of our needs.
“But I agree it can be overlooked. I think we will have security there and we will build a bit of protection. Because of course it’s crucial if you train on [matchday] minus-one, you do your team buildups, you do your set pieces, you finalise with penalties … you don’t want the opponent to know. It just gives you a crucial advantage. So we’re trying to be as private as possible.”
