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Cabinet Office suggested Mandelson did not even need security vetting, Robbins tells MPs – UK politics live | Politics
Cabinet Office suggested Mandelson did not even need security vetting, Robbins tells MPs
In his letter to the committee, Robbins says the Cabinet Office suggested that Mandelson would not have to go through security vetting. He says:
After the announcement, I believe the Cabinet Office (CO) raised whether Developed Veƫng (DV) was actually necessary. I understand the FCDO insisted that DV was a requirement before Mandelson took up his post in Washington.
Key events
Henry Dyer on Robbins’ revelation about the Cabinet Office saying security vetting not needed
Henry Dyer is a Guardian investigative correspondent.
Olly Robbins has given remarkable evidence so far. He has spoken about the pressure the Foreign Office faced from Downing Street – weeks before he took the top job – about ensuring Peter Mandelson made it to Washington as ambassador. That included, Robbins claims, a discussion between the Cabinet Office and the Foreign Office as to whether or not Mandelson even needed to go through the vetting process.
Robbins said his predecessor had to be “very firm in person” about the necessity of Mandelson to face vetting in the days leading up to Christmas, in the face of arguments from the Cabinet Office that there was no need for Mandelson to face vetting, given he was a member of the House of Lords and a member of the privy council.
Given nearly all staff – including junior civil servants – in the Foreign Office require DV clearance, it would have been astonishing for the man in the top British diplomatic posting to not have received the same security clearance.
Robbins refuses to say if Mandelson’s security vetting threw up concerns not ‘already in public domain’
Thornberry asked if the vetting process threw up anything “that wasn’t already in the public realm”.
Robbins said he would not answer that because the whole process relies on confidentiality. People comply because they know that they say will not be disclosed.
Thornberry said she was not asking what the new information might have been.
Robbins said, if he said new information came out, people would ask what it was.
Thornberry said she would not do that.
Robbins replied:
I trust you. I’m not sure that the whole of the rest of the world will hold off from wanting to know.
Robbins says Mandelson’s vetting decision ‘borderline’
Robbins confirmed that the decision about Mandelson’s developed vetting was “borderline”. (See 8.57am.)
I was told that UKSV [UK Security Vetting] were leaning towards recommending against, but accepted it was a borderline case.
He said that, although reporting suggests this is process you pass or fail, that is now how the system works.
Robbins says he does not know if Morgan McSweeney was behind No 10 trying to rush Mandelson appointment
Thornberry asked Robbins if Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff, was the person putting pressure on the Foreign Office to push through the Mandelson appointment. She said:
We do know that Morgan McSweeney was a protege of Peter Mandelson, and we know that he was very keen on Peter Mandelson getting the job, and we know that he resigned, saying that it was all his fault and that he had advised the prime minister to appoint Peter Mandelson and took it on the chin.
Robbins said, when he said he didn’t know who the individuals were, he meant it.
Cabinet Office suggested Mandelson did not even need security vetting, Robbins tells MPs
In his letter to the committee, Robbins says the Cabinet Office suggested that Mandelson would not have to go through security vetting. He says:
After the announcement, I believe the Cabinet Office (CO) raised whether Developed Veƫng (DV) was actually necessary. I understand the FCDO insisted that DV was a requirement before Mandelson took up his post in Washington.
Thornberry asks about Robbins’ phone.
Robbins says he has had to hand in his official phone. But the messages were downloaded, he says.
Thornberry asks if there was a record of all the calls for No 10.
Robbins says if civil servants minuted every call they took, they would never get anything done.
Robbins says Foreign Office was under ‘constant pressure’ from No 10 to push through Mandelson appointment
Robbins says the Foreign Office insisted developed vetting would have to go ahead.
Thornberry is asking where the pressure for the appointment to go through very quicky was coming from. (See 9.14am.)
Robbins says that in January 2025 his office, and the foreign secretary [David Lammy’s] office were “under constant pressure”.
“There was an atmosphere of constant chasing,” he says.
Asked who this was coming from, Robbins says it was “private office to private office”.
Thornberry asks for the names of those putting pressure on the Foreign Office to expedite the appointment and the vetting process.
Robbins says he does not want to give names.
I didn’t come here today to put scapegoats other civil servants. I came here to make sure the committee understood the circumstances.
Robbins says, when he started as permament secretary, it was not even clear that Peter Mandelson would have to go through the developed vetting process.
Robbins says No 10 wanted Mandelson in US ‘as quickly as humanly possible’ before security vetting started
Robbins starts by saying that when he started as permanent secretary, the Mandelson appointment was well under way. He says:
I wasn’t walking into a vacuum. I arrived to a situation in which a due diligence report had been undertaken into Mandelson by the Cabinet Office, assessing the reputational risks and his fitness for office.
The prime minister had then presumably taken advice on his fitness for office.
The name had been submitted to the king as ministers’ recommendation.
The prime minister had made an announcement that Mandelson was his nominee without caveats.
The British government had sought agreement, the formal diplomatic process for a host government accepting a nominee from the US government, and that had been obtained before I arrived in post.
He’d been given access to the building. You’ve been given access to low classification [information]. And, from time to time for case specific issues, he was being given access to higher classification briefing.
So I’m afraid I walked into a situation in which, there was already a very, very strong expectation [that the appointment would go through].
Robbins also said that “coming from No 10” there was an expectation that “he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible”.
The hearing has started.
Emily Thornberry, the chair, started by saying that Robbins did not tell the whole truth about this process when he gave evidence to it in November.
She says she hopes he will be more forthcoming today.
Foreign affairs committee releases letter from Olly Robbins
Here is the letter from Olly Robbins.
The full text of the letter is here.
The foreign affairs committee has released a letter it has received from Olly Robbins. According to Sky News, in it he says he will not be able to talk about some matters related to his sacking because he is taking legal advice.
That seems to be confirmation that he is pursuing an unfair dismissal case.
Robbins gives evidence to foreign affairs committee
The foreign affairs committee hearing is about to start.
There is a live feed at the top of this blog, you may need to refresh the page for it to appear.
According to the report by Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright in the Times, Olly Robbins will tell the foreign affairs committee that he never actually read the full developed vetting report on Peter Mandelson. They say:
The Times has been told that Robbins will use an appearance before the foreign affairs select committee on Tuesday to reveal that he did not see the formal recommendation by UK Security Vetting (UKSV), the body that vets public appointments, stating that Mandelson should not be given clearance.
He was given a verbal briefing by the Foreign Office’s security team and told that UKSV considered Mandelson’s case to be “borderline”, although if the decision was UKSV’s, it was likely to oppose giving him clearance. Robbins assessed the “outstanding risks” and concluded that they could be mitigated.
Robbins is expected to highlight the “prevailing atmosphere” at the time of the appointment, including the fact that Starmer chose to press ahead with announcing Mandelson as ambassador to the United States before security vetting had been conducted.
Ed Miliband says he always thought appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to US would ‘blow up’
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has said that he always thought that the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US would “blow up”.
In an interview with Sky News this morning, Miliband claimed that David Lammy, the deputy PM who was foreign secretary at the time of the appointment, also had doubts about the appointment.
But Miliband said he did not express his concens to Keir Starmer, in part because it was well known that Miliband and Mandelson did not get on.
They clashed when they were both cabinet ministers when Gordon Brown was PM, and when Miliband subsequently became Labour leader, he marginalised Mandelson – who in turn became a critic of Miliband’s leadership strategy.
Miliband told Sky News:
You’re saying [Mandelson] should never have been appointed [as US ambassador] and I agree with you …
I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010.
Asked what he thought when the Mandelson appointment was announced, Miliband said:
That it could blow up, that it could go wrong.
I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it … I think he was worried about it too.
But Miliband did not discuss this with Starmer, he said.
Maybe I wasn’t the person that people would necessarily ask, I think people knew my view on Peter Mandelson.
But Miliband also said he did not think Starmer should resign over this.
You’re asking me should Keir Starmer resign over the appointment of Lord Mandelson? And I’m saying to you, no, I don’t think he should.
Because I think if every time a prime minister made a mistake they resigned, we would shuttle through prime ministers like nobody’s business.
Prime ministers make mistakes.
I think on big judgments for this country, the biggest judgment of all, whether to join the war against Iran, Keir Starmer made a big and fundamental correct judgment.
Voters ‘don’t like’ Starmer, but leadership challenge ‘last thing we want right now’, says Labour MP Sarah Champion
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP who chairs the international development committee, was on the Today programme this morning talking about the mood in the Labour party following the Peter Mandelson crisis. She said that Keir Starmer was unpopular with voters, but not because of this. She said:
I’ll be honest with you, people don’t like Keir on the door but it’s not over this Mandelson thing. They don’t like him personally.
There’s been a fantastic campaign by opposition parties to undermine him …
I think that so much attention being given to the minutiae of this just confirms the Westminster bubble in their mind and they don’t like it.
But Champion also said that a leadership challenge was “absolutely the last thing that we want right now”.
Trump says Starmer made ‘really bad pick’ when he chose Mandelson as US ambassador
Donald Trump seems to be conducting his relationship with Keir Starmer chiefly by online trolling at the moment. He was at it again overnight, with a post on his Truth Social network saying that, when Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, it was a “really bad pick”.
Sacked Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins to face MPs’ questions over Mandelson vetting
Good morning. At 9am Olly Robbins will give evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee about the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. Until last week Robbins was permanent secretary at the Foreign Office and his predecessor but one in that office, Simon McDonald, was the man who terminated Boris Johnson’s career with a revelation showing that Johnson had lied about his knowledge of a sleaze allegation about a minister. Robbins is not expected to produce a bombshell on that scale, but his evidence will be moment of jeodpardy for Keir Starmer nevertheless.
Robbins was sacked because he had not told Starmer that Mandelson failed his security vetting interview after Starmer had announced he was getting the ambassador’s job. If Robbins were to prove that Starmer were told, that would be career ending for the PM. But no one is expecting that.
Instead, the hearing will illustrate the dispute between the PM and the former head of the Foreign Office over whether Robbins should have told Downing Street. Starmer says he should; Robbins is expected to say that that he was meant to keep the process confidential because all that ultimately mattered was the final decision – which is that Mandelson did get vetting approval, because Robbins used his judgment as the decision-maker to ignore the recommendation from officials and grant vetting approval.
The most interesting question is, why? And here it will get difficult for Starmer, because Robbins is likely to argue that he felt under pressure to grant vetting approval because Starmer had already said he wanted Mandelson to get the job, despite knowing full well about the multiple factors that made his appointment problematic.
We know this because Robbins suggested as much when he last gave evidence to the committee about this appointment, in November last year. Robbins told the committee:
Back before Lord Mandelson was announced as the appointee, there was a process … within the Cabinet Office to make sure that the prime minister was aware of Lord Mandelson and the issues around his appointment. There was then a process of clearing his conflicts of interest, which the employing department [the Foreign Office] oversaw, which we have talked about. In parallel with that process, we also went through the standard UK national security vetting process for DV [developed vetting].
Mandleson failed the DV interview. But Robbins was making the point that, by then, Mandelson had already been approved by the Cabinet Office’s due diligence process (a separate vetting exercise). Robbins also told the committee:
By the time we are describing [when DV was carried out], it was clear that the prime minister wanted to make this appointment himself.
In the Times, Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright highlight this in their story on today’s hearing, saying Stamer “will be accused of pressuring the Foreign Office into approving the appointment of Lord Mandelson despite being aware of his friendship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his business links to Russia and China”.
And here is the our analysis, by Kiran Stacey, Henry Dyer and Paul Lewis, of all the issues likely to come up at the hearing.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Olly Robbins, the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, gives evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet, including a political cabinet session.
9.30am: The Good Growth Foundation holds a day-long National Growth Debate, with speeches from Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM.
10am: Executives from TikTok, Meta, Roblox, and academics give evidence to the Commons education committee on screen time and social media.
11.30am: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, makes a statement to MPs.
After 1.30pm: MPs begin an emergency debate tabed by the Tories on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US.
2.20pm: John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, speaks at the STUC conference.
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But the former health secretary told BBC Newsnight he would prefer for the prime minister “to take a decision on his own terms”.
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Key events
32 mins: Algeria get on the ball in Argentina’s half for the first time in ages. They work the ball from side to side then look to attack down the right but Almada tracks back effectively.
30 mins: Messi misplaces a pass, then commits a foul trying to win the ball back. He is by no means the passenger we might have expected out of possession.
28 mins: Only when the ball is back with E Martinez do Argentina spread the field. Otherwise it is like a small-sided training exercise. The composure in tight areas and confidence in the collective technical ability is something to behold. The ball is in perpetual motion, then in the final third the single touches become more extravagant and daring, but always effective. Algeria can’t get near it.
26 mins: Messi is now the joint-third highest goalscorer in World Cup history. And he joins Cristiano Ronaldo as the only men to find the back of the net in five different World Cups.
24 mins: Time for a hydration break. That first quarter went according to plan for Argentina – but only just, with a VAR offside check saving them from conceding the opening goal.
22 mins: Messi works space from one of those rapier-like moves but his cross is overhit and Algeria clear. Argentina are hungry in midfield though and soon with the ball back. The North Africans are now defending in a deep low block, scared of pressing for fear the defending champions will just play through them.
21 mins: Argentina return to their game plan of working the ball around slowly and safely across their defence and midfield before darting forward like a fencer with razor sharp incisions.
20 mins: That goal was exactly how Lionel Scaloni had drawn up on the training ground. Technical excellence from back to front and individual brilliance of historic proportions.
18 mins: Sometimes all the hype is actually worth it.
Argentina are looking almost exclusively for vertical passes through the lines with even Messi dropping deep to accept possession. The little genius does just that to start a move with a one-two then ghosts unchecked into space between the lines. A couple of passes later the ball is at his feet with room to turn, which he does, then takes a couple of steps to advance towards the penalty area before unleashing an unstoppable left-footed effort that arcs away from Zidane and into the top right corner. Brilliant.
GOAL! Argentina 1-0 Algeria (Messi, 17)
You know the script.
15 mins: Argentina’s structure during build up play is very compact. They’re looking to ping rondo-style passes in tight areas to unlock Algeria on the half-turn with very little space between the back four and the front three.
13 mins: Argentinian songs rain down from the precipitous stands of Arrowhead Stadium as the team they are cheering on pad their possession stats. Eventually they work the ball through the lines on the left where Almada has an opportunity to do something decisive but he overhits his throughball to Messi when he may have been better off shooting.
11 mins: Algeria with a free-kick on the left. They go short – and like London buses, Messi makes a second tackle of the game to dispossess Hadj Moussa. Even though their goal was ruled out, Algeria have gained confidence from the move and started to spray the ball around nicely in midfield.
VAR! No Goal!
Brilliant from Maza in midfield, recycling possession, keeping the ball moving, teasing between the lines. He spots Chaibi darting between fullback and centre-half, feeds him perfectly, and the finish is glorious, deceiving Martinez at his near post.
But with the crowd adjusting to the shock excitement is quelled by a VAR intervention and the goal is ruled out for a marginal offside against the goalscorer.
GOAL! With their first attack Algeria opening the scoring!
7 mins: This is a rare low tempo contest. Argentina are dominating possession but not looking to force anything.
5 mins: The ball goes out of play on the right as a pass slightly in front of Messi beats the veteran’s quickstep. He has definitely lost a yard or six of pace. You wouldn’t know it during the next phase of play though as he jumps in behind and clips a delightful finish over the onrushing Zidane. However, his delight is cut short as he notices the assistant’s flag raised for offside. It was marginal, but he took off a fraction too early.
3 mins: In possession, Argentina are happy to bide their time and draw Algeria out to them. They do just that, Romero attempts the long ball, Almada picks up the scraps and crosses to La Martinez who heads straight at Zidane. He was offside anyway so it wouldn’t have counted.
2 mins: Argentina are defending in a 4-3-3 shape out of possession with Messi on the right of the front three. And you’ll never believe this – he did some defending – winning the ball back in his own half and feeding back to his keeper.
1 min: An early question to ponder as the action gets under way at walking pace: are Argentina the most heavily tattooed team at the World Cup?
Kick-off!
Lionel Messi’s World Cup campaign is under way…
Argentina’s anthem was sung with smiles and pride, the defending champions looking relaxed and confident. Algeria’s players belted out their own hymn with a steely determination on their faces.
The Fennecs’ kit improves on closer inspection, with some nice touches giving it a retro feel, imbuing the spirit of 1982, the Disgrace of Gijon, and all that.
Out walk the two sides into a stadium populated from near top to bottom in fans wearing Albiceleste colours.
Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane is wearing a protective face mask as he recovers from a severe jaw and chin fracture that he suffered playing for Granada in April.
Argentina will be in their glorious sky blue and white stripes today, complemented by black shorts and trim. Algeria are wearing their change strip of green with white shorts.
A selection of Messi stats for you to digest at as the veteran begins his valedictory World Cup.
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26 – record number of World Cup matches played
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6 – record World Cups appeared in (shared with Cristiano Ronaldo)
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13 – World Cup goals (joint fifth all-time)
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38 – age at kick-off (12th oldest at the 2026 World Cup)
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2 – record number of World Cup golden balls
Today’s officials are from Poland, led by referee Szymon Marciniak, who took charge of the 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France, and the 2023 Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan.
He is a celebrity in Poland, appearing as a contestant on the Polish version of Hell’s Kitchen, and featuring in the documentary series Sędziowie, a behind the scenes look at the life of a referee.
Conditions are glorious in Kansas City. It is around 26C and dropping as golden hour drifts towards sundown.
The venue today is Arrowhead Stadium. This classically American open bowl can hold 76,000 spectators and is known commercially as GEHA Field. During the World Cup it is neutralised to Kansas City Stadium.
The primary tenants are NFL franchise the Kansas City Chiefs, winners of four Super Bowls, including three since 2019.
The venue has twice earned the Guinness World Record for the loudest stadium, first in 2013, then in 2014, during matches featuring the Chiefs.
Lionel Messi has already stamped his authority on the turf.
Daniel Sperry brings us one of those necessary World Cup stories that reminds us the hostile politics of the leaders of a nation does not reflect the hospitality of most its residents.
Jonathan Wilson has spoken to Luciana Alvarengue, the former maths teacher of both Enzo Fernández and Julián Álvarez, who provides a neat character study of the two World Cup winners.
“You either love maths or you hate it,” Alvarengue says. “There are no grey areas. Julián was very good at maths. He had a very good way of working in the classroom in general. Enzo was a little more difficult to deal with. There are days when you would say he was more focused on a game, on whether he was going to be selected or not.
“When he came into the classroom, Enzo liked to make sounds, banging his pencil case on the table. I remember entering the classroom, and on the left side was Enzo’s place, and he was with his back against the wall, his feet on the other bench, and there were days when he was like: ‘Today I’m going to stay like this.’ Julián was calmer, much more respectful.
22 players will walk out into the Kansas City evening with an equal chance of influencing this contest but the eyes of the world will be trained squarely on the oldest and shortest of them.
Your eyes are not deceiving you, that is a Zidane in goal for the Fennecs, Luca Zidane, son of the French World Cup legend.
Algeria XI
Vladimir Petkovic has opted for a 5-2-3 formation in a bid to stiffen his side’s defence. Star man Riyad Mahrez starts on the bench.
23 Zidane; 17 Belghali, 2 Mandi, 21 Bensebaini, 5 Belaid 15 Ait-Nouri; 19 Bentaleb, 14 Boudaoui; 22 Maza, 11 Hadj Moussa, 9 Gouiri.
Argentina XI
Lionel Scaloni has left in-demand Julian Alvarez on the bench for Argentina’s opening match. Cristian Romero is fit to start after fleeing Tottenham’s relegation battle.
23 E Martinez; 4 Montiel, 13 Romero, 6 Li Martinez, 25 Medina; 7 De Paul, 24 Fernandez, 20 Mac Allister; 10 Messi, 16 Almada, 22 La Martinez.
What about Algeria? Even Maher Mezahi isn’t sure what to expect.
Algeria are one of this World Cup’s great unknowns. On paper, this team has an impressive recent record: a friendly victory over the Netherlands made it 21 wins, four draws and three defeats from 28 matches under Vladimir Petkovic, with 67 goals scored. The problem is that it has been achieved against generally poor-quality opposition. Algeria’s qualifying campaign was a breeze, with Guinea and Mozambique – both considered Pot C sides on the continent – being their sternest tests.
We can be pretty sure Petkovic will lean on his players’ technical quality, play attractive football, but leave gaps in behind the defence. What we don’t know is which players will be called upon for half the starting positions.
Ok, turning our attention now to Argentina v Algeria, let’s get a view on the defending champions from the experts at Olé.
The holders arrive at the World Cup with a squad that knows each other almost by heart but perhaps not with its players in peak physical condition – several had injury set-backs at the end of a very demanding season with their clubs. If everyone is fit, the coach will field many of the same players who were crowned champions in Qatar, with the exception of Ángel Di María, who no longer plays for the national team.
Lionel Scaloni’s plan is to keep the 4-3-3 formation, with a solid defence featuring two centre-backs and two attacking full-backs, plus dynamic midfielders with excellent passing. Lionel Messi leads the charge once more, supported by the formidable Julián Alvarez and Thiago Almada, who could be the breakout star. Almost two thirds of the 2022 squad remains, but it now also includes some promising young players such as Nico Paz, who has been in excellent form at Como. They will also have established stars like Lautaro Martínez, who aims to be in top condition for this World Cup: something he couldn’t achieve in Qatar.
Norway have delivered on their pre-tournament dark horse status with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Iraq to join France at the top of Group I. There was a brace for Erling Haaland, putting the Manchester City goal machine alongside Kylian Mbappe in the race for the Golden Boot.
In the latest who-cares-the-rapture-is-coming-soon-anyway news Johnny Child continues to turn left for global warming.
As a result of the huge distances the New Weather Institute has described this World Cup as “the most polluting event ever”, estimating that it will generate about 9 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Air travel is responsible for about 7.7 million tons of that carbon estimate, more than four times that of the average for World Cups held from 2010 to 2022.
In today’s opening match France overcame a disjointed first half to run out comfortable 3-1 winners over Senegal. Les Bleus didn’t look at their best for big chunks but the class of Olise, Mbappé, Doue, and Barcola proved irresistible.
Mbappé now has 14 goals in 15 World Cup matches, drawing him alongside Gerd Muller on the all-time standings, behind only Ronaldo and Miroslav Klose. He will surely leave North America as the most prolific goalscorer in finals history.
Max and the gang celebrate Cape Verde on the latest World Cup Daily pod.
In case you missed it, international manager par excellence Hervé Renard will go to the ball after all. He of the fitted white dress shirt qualified with Saudi Arabia, only to lose his job on the eve of the tournament. The Frenchman has answered Tunisia’s SOS and will replace Sabri Lamouchi in the dugout for the remaineder of the tournament after the former Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City boss was sacked following a grisly opening defeat to Sweden.
Michael Butler compiled the latest Football Daily roundup, featuring Pico Lopes, Marcelo Bielsa, and the late Roy Hattersley.
Let’s ease into the third fixture of matchday six by peering into the mind of David Squires.
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of match 19 of the 2026 World Cup between Argentina and Algeria. Kick-off in this Group J clash at Kansas City Stadium is 8pm local time (9pm EDT/2am BST/11am AEST).
The arrival of the defending champions into a tournament always adds a frisson of excitement to proceedings and that is the case today as Argentina get their campaign underway. Of course the presence of la Albiceleste also means that of captain, Lionel Messi, who alone has the heft of a participating nation in these parts since his move to MLS.
2022 was Messi’s crowing glory, the triumph that cemented his status among the very greatest in football history. He is not without a chance of adding a second winner’s medal to his collection in North America, but he faces a tougher task this time around as he and his team battle the unvanquishable opponent: time.
Algeria offer a stiff early test of an ageing team’s title defence. Ranked 28th in the world they are coached by the canny Vladimir Petkovic and captained by serial winner Riyad Mahrez. They warmed up for the World Cup by beating the Netherlands in Rotterdam and thrashing Argentina’s northern neighbours Bolivia 4-0.
I’ll be back shortly with team news and a round-up of all the matchday action so far. In the meantime you can keep an eye on Iraq v Norway and email any thoughts about the tournament so far to jonathan.howcroft.freelance@theguardian.com.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the ban will give children more time, security and freedom to grow up. But how do under-16s feel?
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