Group L action begins tonight as England take on Croatia at Dallas Stadium.
They're the two teams hotly fancied to compete for the top spot in the group, so the outcome of England vs Croatia here will be crucial to determining the paths of both sides in this competition.
The match officials have been announced for the clash, so here's who will be the referee for England vs Croatia, and the rest of the team on the sidelines and on VAR.
The referee for England vs Croatia
Clement Turpin is the referee for England vs Croatia.
The Frenchman has been working at the highest level since 2010 and has officiated the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final, the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final, and worked at Euro 2024, too.
He has spent most of his career working in his native France, with over 300 games refereed in Ligue 1 to date. Turpin also has 62 Champions League ties under his belt, and five World Cup matches before tonight.
Overall, he's a pretty fair and reasonable referee. He's not afraid to show a yellow but he's not exactly what you'd describe as trigger-happy with his cards.
Across his 430-game career, Turpin has produced an average of 3.32 yellow cards per match, but his red card rate is quite low at 0.27 per match (117 in total).
It is worth noting that, over the last year, Turpin has awarded seven penalties in 31 games, which is a relatively high ratio of spot-kicks in the grand scheme of things.
Turpin's assistant referees on the night will be fellow Frenchmen Nicolas Danos and Benjamin Pagès.
Mexico native Katia Itzel García is the fourth official for the World Cup 2026 tie, while Sandra Ramírez, another Mexican, is the reserve assistant just in case anything happens.
On VAR duty for the game at Dallas Stadium is Jérôme Brisard with Willy Delajod as his assistant.
They're both French, too, but Swiss official Fedayi San is in the VAR room to support.
