The Government launch a consultation on relaxing licensing hours for the FIFA Men’s Football World Cup finals

The Government yesterday launched a consultation on relaxing the licensing hours during the FIFA Men’s football World Cup finals in 2026. 

The proposal is to extend the hours that premises are permitted to sell alcohol for consumption on the premises so that they can continue to sell alcohol to 01:00 the following morning, should any of the home nations (England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) reach the semi-finals or the final.

However, there is one important caveat, namely that the kick-off time for those games must be 21:00 or earlier (British Summer Time).

Should these matches kick off after 21:00 (BST) then operators will have no alternative but to issue Temporary Event Notices because, as the consultation points out, these matches could conceivably not finish until after 01:00 (BST) with extra time and penalties. Looking at the proposed venues from the World Cup match schedule, the cities scheduled to host these games are a number of hours behind us and so it would appear, unless the games kick off in the afternoon local time, that the games could well kick off after 21:00 (BST) and so the general extension as proposed would not apply and TENs will be needed.

The proposals do not extend to premises which are only permitted to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises and those which are only permitted to provide late night refreshment. It also does not include any proposal to extend the hours for any form of entertainment.

One does wonder why the Government doesn’t feel that a quarter final is an event of national significance. It should also be noted the consultation does not include any extension for the third/fourth place play off.

The consultation can be found here.