{"id":38144,"date":"2026-07-03T19:56:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T19:56:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:56:33","slug":"thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of pubs closed for England vs. Mexico game despite Starmer&#8217;s decision | Soccer | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"photo changeSpace\">\n<p class=\"withoutCaption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"zoomEnabled\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/england-supporters-cheer-after-their-teams-first-goal-as-they-watch-the-television-broadcast-7020611.jpg?r=1783097800808\" alt=\"The government allows pubs to open until 5am on Monday morning.\" title=\"The government allows pubs to open until 5am on Monday morning.\" width=\"590\" height=\"393\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"newsCaption\">The government allows pubs to open until 5am on Monday morning. <span class=\"caption\">(Image: Getty)<\/span><span class=\"magnifier\" data-img=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/england-supporters-cheer-after-their-teams-first-goal-as-they-watch-the-television-broadcast-7020611.jpg?r=1783097800808\"\/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Thousands of pubs are expected to remain closed when England play Mexico in the World Cup, despite the government giving them permission to open. The match in Mexico City kicks off early on Monday at 1am (British time), so the government has allowed pubs to stay open until 5am. However, two of the country&#8217;s biggest pub chains have admitted that most of their stores will not accept the offer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>A Wetherspoon spokeswoman said only five of its 800 pubs would be open for the match. Greene King, which operates 2,600 pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK, has confirmed that more than 600 of its pubs across England will remain open until late to show the match.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Sir Keir Starmer announced on Thursday that pubs in England and Wales would be allowed to extend their opening hours ahead of the Round of 16 fixture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>MPs had been lobbying for more flexibility beyond the 2am extended opening time already in place for England&#8217;s World Cup matches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>A blanket extension means individual pubs do not need to submit applications for additional time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) revealed earlier this year that the number of pubs across the UK had fallen from 46,829 in 2020 to 44,656 in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Tommy Higgs, co-owner of the Three Horseshoes pub in Witney, Oxfordshire, confirmed the venue will remain closed for the England game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Mr Higgs told LBC: &#8220;We live in an urban area around here and I think it&#8217;s a bit disrespectful to local residents to make that kind of noise at 5am.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>&#8220;Nobody wants to work until 5am. We&#8217;re not a nightclub. We&#8217;re a local pub in a small town. We&#8217;re not allowed to disturb the neighbors, because if you do that, you&#8217;re going to really go to hell.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"photo changeSpace\">\n<p class=\"withoutCaption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"zoomEnabled\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/sign-for-the-brand-wetherspoon-on-27th-may-2026-in-london-united-kingdom-j-d-wetherspoon-plc-7020617.jpg?r=1783097800816\" alt=\"Wetherspoon will only open five pubs ahead of Monday's match\" title=\"Wetherspoon will only open five pubs ahead of Monday's match\" width=\"590\" height=\"393\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"newsCaption\">Wetherspoon will only open five pubs ahead of Monday&#8217;s match <span class=\"caption\">(Image: Getty)<\/span><span class=\"magnifier\" data-img=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/sign-for-the-brand-wetherspoon-on-27th-may-2026-in-london-united-kingdom-j-d-wetherspoon-plc-7020617.jpg?r=1783097800816\"\/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>&#8220;Many of our staff have second jobs. We employ a few people full-time, but mostly part-time. I don&#8217;t expect that from them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Mr Higgs said of the government&#8217;s decision to ease licensing rules: &#8220;I think this is a huge benefit for some people, especially in larger urban areas where there are places that open later.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>\u201cBut here and where we are, that\u2019s not what we do. There are other things they can do to help pubs trade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>\u201cBeing open until 5 a.m. on Mondays is a benefit for some people, but completely pointless for others.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Andrew Gallagher, brand and marketing director at Greene King, said: &#8220;We are delighted to have been given permission to open late as England progress through the tournament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>\u201cThere is nothing quite like the atmosphere in our pubs, giving fans the opportunity to come together to enjoy and hopefully celebrate the occasion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>\u201cWe know this will be a popular match, so we encourage our guests to secure their spot as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/2225127\/Pubs-England-Mexico-Keir-Starmer-World-Cup\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government allows pubs to open until 5am on Monday morning. (Image: Getty) Thousands of pubs are expected to remain closed when England play Mexico in the World Cup, despite the government giving them permission to open. The match in Mexico City kicks off early on Monday at 1am (British time), so the government has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-matches"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thousands of pubs closed for England vs. Mexico game despite Starmer&#039;s decision | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thousands of pubs closed for England vs. Mexico game despite Starmer&#039;s decision | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government allows pubs to open until 5am on Monday morning. (Image: Getty) Thousands of pubs are expected to remain closed when England play Mexico in the World Cup, despite the government giving them permission to open. The match in Mexico City kicks off early on Monday at 1am (British time), so the government has\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-03T19:56:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/england-supporters-cheer-after-their-teams-first-goal-as-they-watch-the-television-broadcast-7020611.jpg?r=1783097800808\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/\",\"name\":\"Thousands of pubs closed for England vs. Mexico game despite Starmer's decision | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7020610.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-03T19:56:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7020610.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7020610.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/thousands-of-pubs-closed-for-england-vs-mexico-game-despite-starmers-decision-soccer-sports\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thousands of pubs closed for England vs. Mexico game despite Starmer&#8217;s decision | Soccer | Sports\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\",\"name\":\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"description\":\"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. 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