The 2026 World Cup final will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, with the Garden State beating out California and Texas for international men’s soccer’s showcase game.
FIFA awarded the July 19 championship match 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 in East Rutherford, MetLife Stadium was promoted by both New York and New Jersey, where the facility 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 superstar 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 Giants and Jets.