February 5: After defeating Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles to earn the title game of the tournament, the 2026 World Cup final will take place at the 82,500-capacity MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, home of the NFL’s New York Jets and Giants.
It appeared like New York and the AT&T Stadium in Arlington were in the running for the championship. After a rift with FIFA over venue rights marketing and unclear host match information, LA’s SoFi was assumed to be eliminated from the competition.
Dallas will now host nine matches overall, including a semi-final match. The first of the US team’s eight matches will take place in Los Angeles.
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.”
Supporter organizations have voiced their worries about the potential costs and travel lengths, which may also put a strain on the athletes. While the longest route is just under 2,200 miles from Los Angeles to Atlanta, the shortest is just over 500 miles from a quarterfinal to a semifinal location. Despite this, Infantino stated that “players and fans have been at the core of our extensive planning.”
Teams will get three days off for all but one of the 104 matches, according to FIFA. It stated that the tournament’s unique match scheduling will maximize the amount of leisure days in between games while minimizing travel for both teams and spectators.
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.
Owner of the Los Angeles Rams, Arsenal F.C., and Colorado Rapids, Stan Kroenke, said, “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.” Kroenke had threatened to pull the SoFi out of hosting, which could have left the 2026 World Cup without a Los Angeles venue.
“There will be tremendous excitement around seeing the best players in the world take the field at our stadium to represent their countries and inspire future generations of athletes, as demonstrated by the billions of fans who watched the 2022 World Cup.” We are eager to collaborate with FIFA and the Los Angeles Host Committee to create initiatives that will benefit Inglewood and the larger Los Angeles area in the long run both economically and socially.
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