West Midlands Picks a Side for Tonight's Final

It won't be coming home this year, but Birmingham isn't cancelling the party. Tonight's World Cup Final between Argentina and Spain kicks off at 8pm UK time (3pm local) at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and two of the city's biggest venues are making sure nobody has to watch it alone.

Argentina are back in the final having knocked England out in the semi with an agonising 92nd-minute winner from Messi — still a sore subject in most beer gardens. Spain arrive as European champions, with teenage forward Lamine Yamal one of the players most fans reckon could decide it.

Down in Digbeth, Luna Springs — billed as Birmingham's biggest outdoor World Cup fan zone — has had screens up since England were still in the competition, and reopens from 3pm today with the big screen, street food and DJs for the final itself.

Over at the Utilita Arena, the 4TheFans screening opens its doors at 5pm ahead of the 8pm kick-off, with a giant screen, live DJs and a few football names on hand to warm the crowd up beforehand. Tickets start from £11, with premium packages on offer for anyone after a padded seat and their own bar.

One small footnote for anyone who booked early: the arena's original ticket terms included a money-back guarantee if England were knocked out before the final. England duly obliged in the semi, so a fair few Brummie football fans may find tonight's viewing has technically already paid for itself.

For the full Americana experience, organisers have also lined up a Super Bowl-style half-time show — a first for the World Cup — with names ranging from Shakira and Madonna to Coldplay and Burna Boy. That's a lot of production for a match Birmingham won't have a team in.

Whoever lifts the trophy, expect Digbeth and the Arena to be just as loud either way. Birmingham's never really needed a reason to watch football on a big screen — it just helps if there's one worth watching.

Just after 11.20pm on Thursday, West Midlands Police received multiple 999 calls reporting disorder involving weapons on Corporation Street, one of the busiest stretches of Birmingham's shopping district.

Officers were sent to the scene and, with support from the force's Drone Unit and CCTV footage, tracked down those involved nearby. Four teenagers were detained within a short time of the calls coming in.

Three boys, aged 13, 16 and 18, were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon. A 19-year-old man was separately arrested on suspicion of robbery, in connection with a different, unrelated incident from June. All four remained in custody for questioning.

The arrests came on the same day West Midlands Police confirmed a 'comprehensive plan' to keep the city centre safe as schools break up for summer, under the banner #SaferTownsSummer — extra patrols across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands aimed at reducing violence, anti-social behaviour and town centre crime.

Chief Inspector Vicki Stott, who leads policing for Birmingham city centre, said the aim isn't to stop young people enjoying the school holidays. 'This isn't about stopping young people from having a good time, but about taking appropriate action to deal with behaviour which we know can be concerning for others in the city centre,' she said, adding that 'criminality and anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.'

Stott said the force is working closely with local schools to speak directly to young people and parents about staying safe over the break, and that previous operations of this kind have shown most people they speak to are simply out enjoying themselves.

The investigation into Thursday night's disorder continues. Anyone with information, or dashcam or CCTV footage, is asked to call 101 or contact West Midlands Police via Live Chat on their website.

Family and colleagues gathered at West Midlands Fire Service's Birmingham headquarters on Monday for the 2026 Chief Fire Officer Commendation Awards, where a handful of firefighters and station crews were recognised for actions that had nothing to do with a shift rota.

Several of the citations involved off-duty staff who simply didn't walk past. Firefighter Mark James-Dixon, from Wednesbury, was off duty when he came across a woman and her dog stranded on a frozen canal; he used his own dog's lead to pull them both to safety, then gave the woman dry clothes and cold-weather advice before making sure she got checked over.

Firefighter Matthew Horne, from Sutton Coldfield, stopped at a serious road crash involving a pedestrian while off duty, delivering emergency care until paramedics arrived — care West Midlands Ambulance Service later credited with helping someone with life-threatening injuries. Station Commander Andrew Nicholls, from Walsall, was on a family holiday when he came across a medical emergency outside a hotel and carried out CPR for around 25 minutes until an ambulance reached them.

Firefighter Craig Reid, from Sutton Coldfield, was off duty and at Liverpool Football Club's title parade when a vehicle drove into the crowd. Having narrowly avoided being hit himself, he ran towards the scene to help injured members of the public, including a young child, and gave first aid until further help arrived.

Not every citation had a happy ending. A crew from Bilston, Crew Commander Mark Pritchard and Firefighter Nathan Webb, were commended for going into a severe house fire in Wolverhampton to reach two children trapped inside, working through intense heat, heavy smoke and a collapsed staircase to get to them within minutes. The children did not survive, but senior officers said the crew's actions gave them every possible chance.

Chief Fire Officer Simon Tuhill told the ceremony the recipients were 'exemplars of our organisation and our values,' adding: 'They have saved lives. They have stepped up on-duty and off-duty. What they have done is far more than "just their job".'

Also recognised was Martin Clee, a finance officer with the service by day, for years of volunteering with Birmingham homelessness charities Reachout Birmingham, Outreach Angels and Homeless One — cooking meals and handing out food, clothing and supplies on evenings and weekends, on top of his day job.

It's easy to think of a fire service only by what happens when the alarm goes off at the station. This year's commendations are a reminder that, for a fair few of these crews, the job doesn't really stop when the shift does.

If you're driving anywhere near Water Orton or the M6/M42 interchange over the last weekend of July, it's worth checking your route first. From 9pm on Friday 24 July, HS2 engineers begin a run of weekend motorway closures to lift some of the last, and heaviest, sections of new railway viaduct into place.

The work is part of the wider project to extend two viaducts that will eventually carry high-speed trains towards Birmingham Curzon Street and the new Washwood Heath rolling stock depot. Rather than building the remaining sections in place over the live motorway — the traditional, slower method — engineers have assembled the spans beside the road and will move them into position using self-propelled modular transporters, essentially giant remote-controlled platforms on wheels.

In total, 175 individual beams are being lifted in, weighing between 56 and 92 tonnes each. To put the top end of that in perspective, a fully loaded London double-decker bus weighs around 12 tonnes — so the heaviest single beam here is close to the weight of seven or eight buses, moved into place in one lift.

The closures run across four separate weekends to get all the beams in, with the M42 shut between junctions 5a and 9 northbound, and junction 7 to 6 southbound, alongside restrictions on the M6 Toll. HS2 and National Highways say using the modular transporters instead of conventional construction methods significantly cuts the time drivers are without their usual route.

For everyday drivers, the practical upshot is simple: night-time and weekend journeys around the Water Orton, Coleshill and Chelmsley Wood area over the next month are going to need a rethink, particularly for anyone relying on the M42/M6 interchange to get across the region.

HS2 says signed diversions will be in place throughout, with exact timings published as each weekend approaches — worth a check on the Transport for West Midlands or HS2 websites before you set off if you're travelling that way.

It's not the most glamorous of the summer's big Birmingham moments, but 92-tonne beams swinging over a live motorway is still one of the more dramatic things happening in the region this month — just best watched from a safe distance, ideally with your sat nav already re-routed.

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✅ YESTERDAY'S ANSWER

Yesterday we asked: Which Birmingham invention happened because its creator's wife had an allergy that meant she couldn't eat proper egg custard?

The answer: A) Bird's Custard.

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