2026 FIFA World Cup final will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey
New York, Feb 5: The 2026 World Cup final will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, beating out Texas and California for soccer's showcase game.
FIFA awarded the July 19 championship to the 1.6 billion venue, which opened in 2010, the culminating match of an expanded 48-nation, 104-game tournament that will be spread across three nations for the first time.
Located about 10 miles from Manhattan, MetLife was promoted by both New York and New Jersey, where the stadium was built in the Meadowlands marshes. The land of Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi and Frank Sinatra will be the focal point of the globe on that Sunday, when either Lionel Messi's Argentina will try to win its second straight title or a successor will emerge.
"It will be a celebration of our diversity and our values," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a telephone interview. "The bigger picture is what leads up to it and what we leave behind for the decades to come."
FIFA made the announcement Sunday at a Miami television studio, allocating the opener of the 39-day tournament to Mexico City's Estadio Azteca on June 11 and the finale to the home of the NFL's New York Jets and Giants.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had lobbied for the final to be at his AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
"The competition was dealing with the perception of the coastal, of a New York, or a Los Angeles," he said. "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."
All games from the quarterfinals on are being played in the United States. Semifinals are on July 14 at AT&T and the following day at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Quarterfinals are at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on July 9, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the following day, and at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on July 11. The third-place game will be at Hard Rock on July 18.
The U.S. team will train in suburban Atlanta ahead of the tournament and open at SoFi on June 12. The Americans play seven days later at Seattle's Lumen Field and finish the group stage at SoFi on June 25.
Since reaching the semifinals of the first World Cup in 1930, the U.S. has advanced to the quarterfinals just once, in 2002.
"It's about making our nation proud," American 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."
Seventy-eight of 104 matches will be played in the U.S., with 13 games each in Mexico and Canada, and there as many as six matches a day.
AT&T will host a tournament-high nine matches. There will be eight each at MetLife, SoFi and Mercedes Benz; seven apiece at Hard Rock, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and NRG Stadium in Houston; and six apiece at Lumen, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, and Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
FIFA officials did not publicly explain their site-decision process.
Philadelphia's final match will be a round-of-16 meeting on July 4, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park hosts baseball's All-Star Game, likely on July 14.
Santa Clara is the only U.S. site that will not host a game after the new round of 32. AT&T will host two round-of-32 matches.
FIFA expanded the World Cup from 32 to 48 nations, increased matches from 64 and announced the 16 sites in 2022.
Murphy learned of the decision while at a watch party in a MetLife Stadium suite. He was not discouraged by a British tabloid report on Jan. 17 that said the final would be at AT&T.
"We did everything we could to put our head downs, focus on the job at hand, kind of push out the noise, and that turned out to be a winning formula," Murphy said.
Mexico will play its second match at Guadalajara's Estadio Akron on June 18 and return to Azteca on June 24. Mexico City will host five matches, with four each at Monterrey's Estadio BBVA and Guadalajara.
Canada will play its opening first-round match in Toronto on June 12, then at B.C. Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 18 and 24. Each Canada venue will host 13 games.
A nation will need to play eight matches to win the title, up from seven since 1982.
All 11 of the U.S. stadiums are home to NFL teams. Hard Rock will host this year's Copa Am rica final on July 14, while MetLife was the site of the 2016 Copa Am rica final.
Both the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals were at Azteca.
When the U.S. hosted the 24-nation, 52-game tournament in 1994, the final was at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, the opener at Chicago's Soldier Field and the semifinals at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford and the Rose Bowl.
With the additional teams, the length of the tournament will grow from 29 days in the shortened 2022 schedule in Qatar and 32 days for the 2018 tournament in Russia.
Only one match will involve a team that has not had at least three off days. FIFA divided the group stage into East, Central and West regions and intended to make travel shorter for group winners.
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.
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Kangana Ranaut sparks row: Claims Gandhi made 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' the national anthem
New Delhi: A significant political controversy has erupted following the Modi government's decision to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a move that has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties. The row was further fueled by BJP MP Kangana Ranaut, who, while defending the name change, erroneously claimed that Mahatma Gandhi had made the devotional song "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram" India’s national anthem.
The central government has rebranded the flagship rural employment scheme from MGNREGA to the "Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission," abbreviated as VB-G RAM G. The removal of Mahatma Gandhi's name from the scheme has been termed an insult to the Father of the Nation by the Congress and other opposition parties.
When questioned by the media outside Parliament regarding the opposition's allegations, Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut defended the government's decision by invoking Mahatma Gandhi's devotion to Lord Ram.
"How is naming it 'Ram Ji' an insult to Gandhi ji?" Ranaut asked. "Mahatma Gandhi made 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' the national anthem to organize the entire country. Therefore, this is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi? The government is fulfilling his dream by giving it the name of Ram."
Ranaut's claim regarding the national anthem was immediately seized upon by the opposition. Congress leader Supriya Shrinate shared the video of Ranaut’s statement on social media, tweeting sarcastically, "Come on brother, today we learned a new national anthem! The BJP is full of such gems."
Social media users also trolled the MP for the factual error. One user quipped, "Kangana ji forgot to mention that Bapu made this the national anthem after the country got independence in 2014," while another commented that the party finds people who "don't use their brains while forwarding WhatsApp messages."
Beyond the social media mockery, senior Congress leaders criticised the renaming on ideological grounds. Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot took to X (formerly Twitter) to condemn the move.
"The biggest irony is that Mahatma Gandhi was a lifelong devotee of Lord Ram and said 'Hey Ram' in his last moments," Gehlot wrote. "Today, the central government is making a despicable attempt to sideline Gandhi ji under the guise of the same 'Ram' name (VB-G RAM G), which is highly condemnable."
मनरेगा का नाम बदलने की केंद्र सरकार की कवायद महात्मा गांधी के प्रति उनकी ओछी मानसिकता और असम्मान का प्रमाण है। सरकार पहले 'पूज्य बापू' के नाम का शिगूफा छोड़ती है और फजीहत होने पर अब 'विकसित भारत-गारंटी फॉर रोजगार एंड आजीविका मिशन (VB-G RAM G)' जैसा नाम थोपना चाहती है। बार-बार नाम…
— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) December 15, 2025
गांधी जी ने ‘रघुपति राघव राजा राम’ को लेकर नेशनल एंथम बनाया था
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) December 16, 2025
BJP MP कंगना रनौत
चलो भाई आज नया नेशनल एंथम भी पता चला है!
BJP में एक से एक शिरोमणि भरे पड़े हैं 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/9DvyV5xLb1
