Staff and students are paying the penalty as a school in Bordon is holding its own World Cup.

If England need to practice their penalties – and let’s be honest, you wouldn’t rule it out again this year – they could get some lessons from Oakmoor School.

The school is holding its own penalty shoot-out world cup, with each tutor group and department adopting one of the 48 competing nations.

The shoot-outs have taken place during breaks and have mirrored the group stages in the US, Canada and Mexico.

While Brazil, France and Argentina might be among the favourites across the pond, there’s no telling who will lift the trophy on the last day of term in Bordon.

For instance, Uzbekistan triumphed 4-3 over Portugal, while New Zealand claimed a sudden death 4-3 victory against Egypt on the school’s 4G pitch on Monday.

“We’ve got a ‘One World, many cultures’ theme where we’ve assigned each tutor group a World Cup team,” said headteacher, Nigel Wright.

“I did a live draw and each group has been given a flag of the team they got.

“We get good crowds coming to watch every shoot-out. There’s been so much enthusiasm for it.”

The competition was the brainchild of Lucy Riva-Williams and Claire Seddon with the final and trophy presentation scheduled to take place on the last day of term.

But there’s some catching up to do, as the heatwave and wet conditions the week beforehand has led to a fixture backlog, while there were calls for VAR on Monday following a dispute over the scoreline.

Penalty takers have been chosen by tutor groups, with Lucy hoping for a repeat of the competition for the Women’s World Cup and Euro 2028.

She said: “We’ve also got fact sheets around the school about each competing nation – everyone has really loved it.”