February 5 – The 2026 World Cup final will be played at the 82,500-capacity MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, home of the NFL’s New York Jets and Giants, beating out Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles for the tournament’s showcase game.
The race for the final looked to have been between New York and the AT&T Stadium in Arlington. LA’s SoFi was reckoned to be out the race after a fall-out with FIFA over marketing of venue rights, and lack of host match clarification.
Dallas will now get a semi-final match and will host nine matches in total. Los Angeles will host the US team’s opening match and will eight matches in total.
FIFA made the announcement on Sunday, at the same time allocating the opener of the expanded 48-nation, 104-game competition to Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca – the first stadium to host World Cup games in three separate editions after 1970 and 1986 – as the entire schedule was made public though crucially without kick-off times.
“From the opening match at the iconic Estadio Azteca to the spectacular final in New York New Jersey, players and fans have been at the core of our extensive planning for this game-changing tournament… that will not only set new records but also leave an indelible legacy,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
While the tournament will take place in 16 locations across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, all quarterfinals are in the US – in Kansas City, Boston, Los Angeles and Miami. Semi-finals are at AT&T stadium in Arlington, Texas – home of the Dallas Cowboys – and the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, whose stadium’s nine matches will be the most of any of the 16 cities, in acknowledging they had been passed over for the final, said: “The competition was dealing with the perception of the coastal, of a New York, or a Los Angeles.”
“If this were totally being played to just America and the United States, that wouldn’t have been such a formidable thing to overcome. But internationally, that’s formidable to overcome.”
Seventy-eight games will be played in the U.S, with 13 each in Mexico and Canada, and as many as six in a single day. All of the three co-hosts will play their three group-stage fixtures on home soil.
Canada’s first game will be held in Toronto while the USA begin at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on the same day. Mexico kick off in Guadalajara.
“It’s about making our nation proud,” said US coach Gregg Berhalter said. “One way to really grow the game and to change soccer in America forever is to perform well and do something that no U.S. team has ever done before.”
Fans groups have expressed their concern about the distances and expense that could be involved while the amount of travelling could also tax the players. The shortest distance between a quarter-final and a semi-final venue, for instance, is just over 500 miles while the longest – between Los Angeles and Atlanta – is just under 2,200 miles though Infantino insisted “players and fans have been at the core of our extensive planning”.
FIFA says teams will have three days of rest for all but one of the 104 matches. “The tournament’s innovative match schedule will serve to minimise travel for teams and fans alike, while the number of rest days between fixtures will be maximised,” it said.
After what has been a somewhat divisive venue appointment process, the knives have been put away, for now, but for FIFA it will have been a reminder that if they want the huge volumes of money that they will pull out of the US, they will need to find a way to ingratiate themselves in a warmer and less authoritarian manner with their hosts – after all, they are guests in the country.
“We built our stadium to showcase the world’s most spectacular sports and entertainment events, and we are thrilled to host eight marquee World Cup matches at Hollywood Park, including the opening match for the U.S. Men’s National Team,” said Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, Arsenal F.C. and Colorado Rapids, and who had threatened to pull the SoFi out from hosting, potentially leaving the 2026 World Cup without a Los Angeles venue.
“As evidenced by the billions of fans who followed the 2022 World Cup, there will be great excitement around having the best players in the world take the field at our stadium to represent their countries and inspire future generations of athletes. We look forward to working with FIFA and the Los Angeles Host Committee to develop programs that will leave a lasting economic and community impact on both Inglewood and the entire greater Los Angeles region.”
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