England Booked Every 6.8 Fouls - Worst Of Any World Cup Quarter-Finalists
Figures show no side left in the tournament is carded more often relative to fouls committed than England.
The Three Lions face the competition's cleanest team - Norway, in Saturday's quarter-final, a gap that raises fresh questions over refereeing consistency as the World Cup enters its highest-stakes matches.
England have committed fewer fouls than Argentina through the World Cup knock-out stages, yet have picked up five more cards, according to data from BetBuilderAI - Gambling.com's AI-powered World Cup hub.
Official team statistics confirm the split: 54 fouls and eight cards (seven yellow, one red) for England, compared to 59 fouls and three yellow cards for Argentina. Set against the rest of the last eight, the gap looks starker still.
England are shown a card once every 6.8 fouls committed - the worst ratio of any quarter-finalist and nearly four times more often than their opponents in Miami on Saturday - Norway, who receive one card every 24 fouls
In England's last-16 win over Mexico, referee Alireza Faghani showed five cards from just seven England fouls including Jarell Quansah, who was sent off early in the second half. In Argentina's win over Egypt, referee Francois Letexier showed no cards from 13 fouls.
It marks a shift from the group stage, when referees averaged 2.5 yellow cards per match across the whole competition, a rate England alone are now running well above in the knockout rounds.
The figures form part of BetBuilderAI's ongoing disciplinary tracking across the World Cup 2026 knockout rounds, updated after every match. The last eight play out like this:
France (49 fouls, four cards) meet Morocco (61 fouls, six cards) on Thursday, a day before Spain, one of the tournament's more lenient sides at 18.3 fouls per card, face Belgium (12.0).
Saturday brings both Norway against England (the competition's cleanest side against its most heavily-carded) and Argentina against Switzerland, pitting Argentina's tally of three cards against Switzerland's tournament-high 69 fouls, for just six cards shown.
BetBuilderAI will continue tracking fouls, cards and referee data across the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final - perfect if usually scour your favourite betting app prior to the kick-off.
BetBuilderAI is gambling.com's AI-powered World Cup 2026 hub, providing predictions, stat packs, raw data and model-driven player and team rankings for every match of the tournament.
