The world football governing body, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), has confirmed that the 2026 World Cup final will take place on July 11 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
In a statement on February 4, 2024, during the release of 2026 FIFA world schedule, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced new Jersey as the host of the final match.
The 48-team World Cup will begin on June 11 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
The epic is also scheduled to end on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the magical stadium with a sitting capacity of 82,500.
“I’m sure that New York, New Jersey are celebrating now. And they should celebrate because they obtained the biggest game in the history of football,” the FIFA President said.
FIFA Schedule for the 2026 World Cup
Also, the world’s most popular sporting event will be held in 16 cities cutting across the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to the tournament schedule unveiled by FIFA on Sunday.
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Canada will host 13 games in total, including 10 in the group stage, split evenly between Toronto and Vancouver.
Mexico will also get 13 games, including 10 during the group stage, in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. The rest of the tournament will be held in 11 cities across the US.
Toronto, Mexico City, and Los Angeles will host the opening matches of their respective national teams.
The open-air stadium for the final, which opened in 2010 and cost $1.6bn, hosted the Copa America Centenario final in 2016 when Chile denied Lionel Messi’s Argentina for a second time in a penalty shootout.
FIFA did not announce kickoff times for the games.
New Features in the 2026 World Cup
The 2026 World Cup will feature 104 matches instead of the traditional 64 games, including an additional knockout round due to the previously announced decision to expand to 48 teams from 32.
As such, football teams will need to play eight matches to win the title, up from seven since 1982.
Due to the distance and different climates across the 16 host cities, FIFA opted to divide the venues being used into three regions: east, central and west with teams operating out of a base camp in the same region as their games.
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The stadiums in Arlington, Atlanta and Houston have retractable roofs that are expected to be closed because of summer heat, and Inglewood and Vancouver have fixed roofs.
Artificial turf will be replaced by grass in Arlington, Atlanta, East Rutherford, Foxborough, Houston, Inglewood and Vancouver.
Several of the venues are expected to widen their surfaces to accommodate a 75-by-115-yard (68-by-105-metre) playing field.
