How to maximise your time off to watch the best sport in 2026

There are few better feelings as a sports fan than opening up your blank calendars to work out how to spend your year. To make sure you make the best of your precious time, we have done the heavy lifting. Need to make sure you take your annual leave at an appropriate time? Unsure about which days you might just so happen to call in “sick” from work? We’ve got you covered. Here are our picks of the key weeks in sport in 2026.

Congratulations – you’ve broken the back of winter and the sporting calendar is thawing out, so it’s time to treat yourself to a week off – albeit an unorthodox Thursday-Thursday stretch. Here’s why: the men’s Six Nations kicks off on Thursday 5 February, as last year’s winners, France, welcome Ireland for the tournament opener. Scotland travel to Italy on Saturday 7 February, a few hours before England open their campaign against a Wales team who have won just twice in their past 23 Tests.

It’s a big week for sport in Italy, as Friday 6 February is also the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina at San Siro, before the events disperse all over northern Italy, with 16 disciplines and 116 medal events to enjoy over the course of 19 days.

Some events including curling, ice hockey and snowboarding will have already begun before the opening ceremony. Look out for alpine skiing, with Guinea-Bissau and the UAE competing for the first time.

We’re not even halfway done with this week. The ICC men’s T20 World Cup begins on 7 February, with holders India sharing the hosting duties with Sri Lanka. India are favourites again, alongside Australia and 2024’s runners-up, South Africa. England will hope to fare better in their first international cricket since the Ashes.

Then there is the Super Bowl on Sunday 8 February at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

And if all of that isn’t enough, there is a double gameweek in the Premier League, including a weekend of rivalries as Liverpool take on Manchester City, Brighton play Crystal Palace, and Leeds welcome Nottingham Forest. To make matters even better, the sun will rise before 7.30am and set after 5pm for the first time in the year.

Think of this as your pre-summer getaway week. Summer is round the corner, and there’s plenty of sport to get stuck into that would make getting a VPN worthwhile while you’re abroad.

Let’s start with some tennis – the French Open begins at Roland Garros on Sunday 24 May, where fans will be hoping Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will continue their thrilling rivalry after their epic five-and-a-half-hour final last year.

We are also deep in finals season in the football calendar – the Conference League final is in Leipzig on Wednesday 27 May, before the club season closes with the Champions League final on Saturday 30 May in Budapest and the Women’s FA Cup final on Sunday 31 May. The Premier League finishes on Sunday 24 May, and it’s worth keeping an eye out on the Women’s Super League – it is likely that its promotion/relegation game will happen this week, as the bottom club from the WSL will play the third-placed team in the WSL2 for a place at next season’s top table. It’s part of the WSL expanding to 14 teams from the 2026-27 season, and the all-or-nothing play-off match will be the first of its kind in English football since 1988.

England women’s cricketers continue their T20 series against New Zealand in Canterbury and Hove this week, before beginning their T20 series against India on Thursday 28 May in Chelmsford. The week begins with the seventh round of the Formula One season, as the drivers race in Canada on Sunday 24 May. Rugby league’s Challenge Cup final also takes place on Saturday 30 May at Wembley.

If we were to implore you to dedicate just one week to sport this year, this would be it. After the mammoth group stages involving 72 matches, the 2026 men’s football World Cup will be into its third week. You have nearly all 16 of the round of 32 fixtures to enjoy, before the round of 16 begins on Saturday 4 July.

If, and it is a big if, the home nations contrive not to make it through the group stages, there will be sporting comfort elsewhere, though. The women’s T20 World Cup in England will be into its final week, and though Australia are hot favourites, this week includes both semi-finals at the Oval and the final at Lord’s. Meanwhile, the England men’s team will be welcoming India to Durham (Wednesday 1 July) and Manchester (Saturday 4 July) for the first two of a five-game T20 series.

Wimbledon also begins this week, and the great weekend of sport concludes with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It will be the first time there has been a reigning British champion to cheer on since 2020 after Lando Norris’s triumph. There’s also Rugby League’s Magic Weekend on 4-5 July, and the Tour de France begins in Barcelona on Saturday 4 July.

What’s that? A mini-break just before the school holidays when everything gets eye-wateringly expensive? Yes please! We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves too much here, but Sunday 19 July is the World Cup final. And we’re not saying England or Scotland will definitely be there, but we can dream. The kick-off will be at 8pm UK time, and the sporting gods have blessed the day with a whole host of other events to whet the appetite.

At Lord’s, England’s men’s cricketers play India in a third one-day international, having also played on Tuesday and Thursday that week. In Southport, the Open at Royal Birkdale will be reaching its climax hours before the World Cup final kicks off, and if that’s not enough, there’s the Belgian Grand Prix to enjoy, too.

Should you need an hors d’oeuvre for the busy Sunday, the T20 Blast Finals Day is on Saturday 18 July. While it’s yet to be confirmed, should you want to extend your mini-break into the following week, the Hundred is likely to begin around Tuesday 21 July, while the Commonwealth Games start in Glasgow on Thursday 23 July. Finally, the Tour de France finishes on Sunday 26 July.

As the great summer of sport comes to its close, here’s a week for those who prefer to take their time off outside the school holidays. The Italian Grand Prix is on Sunday 6 September, but you could treat yourself and get Stateside – over at Flushing Meadows, the US Open tennis enters its final week with Aryna Sabalenka and Alcaraz looking to retain their titles. You can also enjoy the NFL season starting again on Thursday 10 September.

Furthermore, England’s red-ball cricketers will be finishing off their summer with a third Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston, and the Spanish Grand Prix takes place on Sunday 13 September.

There is also the first edition of a new biennial track-and-field event – the World Athletics Ultimate Championship – held in Budapest, the three-evening event starting on 11 September will have a prize fund of $10m. In cycling, the men’s Tour of Britain concludes on Sunday 6 September, while the rest of the cycling fraternity will be entering the third week of the Vuelta a España. The four-day Burghley Horse Trials also finish on Sunday 6 September.

Photograph by Andy Hall for The Observer