Across the home nations, around half the public take pride in their men’s national football team – but Scots are the most proud of their national football team, with 61 per cent. This drops to 50 per cent in England and then to 47 per cent in Wales, with the latter unfortunately not qualifying for the World Cup.

In England, Labour voters are the most likely to take pride in the England men’s national team. Over 7 in 10 English Labour voters (73 per cent) take “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of pride in the England men’s team, compared to just 2 in 10 (21 per cent) who feel “not very much” or “no pride at all”. Curiously, when polled in December 2025, Labour voters were the only group who tend to think that England will make it to the World Cup final, with the Greens in second place.

Reform voters are the most likely to take “a great deal of pride”: a third (33 per cent) say this, compared to 32 per cent for Labour in second and 20 per cent for the average English voter. Green voters are the least proud, with 62 per cent feeling “not very much” or “no pride at all”.

This national pride translates into public appetite for councils funding public viewings, with 49 per cent of Britons supporting the organisation of public screenings of major matches, against just 22 per cent who opposed (net +27).

In our pre-World Cup polling, we found the “Anyone but England” adage to not hold among Scots: only 20 per cent said they would root for England if Scotland weren’t in the tournament, but similarly, only 28 per cent said they would actively want them to lose. A further 28 per cent said that they wouldn’t mind either way. These percentages may change now that Scotland has been eliminated.

After the England-DRC Congo game, Thomas Tuchel’s net approval rating reached +21, an increase of +8 when compared to the week before. This means Britons think Tuchel is doing a better job than any UK political leader, with only 12 per cent thinking he is doing a bad job. However, the biggest portion of the public – 34 per cent – don’t have a take on Tuchel, although this has decreased by five points in the last week, reflecting his higher profile as England progressed through the tournament.

More than twice as popular than Tuchel is Harry Kane, whose net approval rating is +52. 36 per cent of the public believe Kane is doing a “very good job”, four times as many as those who would say the same about Nigel Farage. Fewer Britons are unsure about Kane, with 21 per cent answering “Don’t know”.

In a similar vein, the public overwhelmingly chose Harry Kane as their favourite player in the England men’s squad (29 per cent), significantly ahead of Jude Bellingham (8 per cent) in second place and Declan Rice (5 per cent) in third. Kane retains his lead regardless of voting intention, although Bellingham swaps with Rice among Reform supporters. Yet again, however, the true winner of the debate was “Don’t know”, with 38 per cent of the public choosing this option.

One debate that’s emerged this year is around hydration breaks: some see them as a sensible way to help players cope with the heat; others feel it adds unnecessary gaps and breaks the momentum of the match.

Our polling finds that Britons are actually quite positive about hydration breaks: 46 per cent of Britons say World Cup hydration breaks are a good thing versus 26 per cent who say they are bad, 20 per cent who “don’t care” and 8 per cent who “don’t know”. Football fans are nearly twice as likely as the average Briton to see hydration breaks as a bad thing (41 per cent), but still lean towards seeing them as a good thing (45 per cent).

Britons aren’t too cynical as most trust the hydration break justification and say the main reason is to help players deal with the heat (54 per cent) rather than to make more advertising money (30 per cent) or to enable managers to make tactical changes (3 per cent).