The 2026 World Cup begins in Mexico City and ends in New Jersey

DrThe 2026 FIFA World Champion will be crowned in the Big Apple. FIFA also announced during a major live show on Sunday evening that the final match of the final tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada will be held on July 19, 2026 at the MetLife Stadium of the New York Football Club in New Jersey. The opening match takes place at the famous Estadio Aztec in Mexico City.

The final match of the 100th Copa America between Argentina and Chile was played in 2016 at the soccer stadium of the New York Giants and New York Jets in the community of East Rutherford, population 10,000, just outside the capital. In Major League Soccer, the arena provides space for 82,500 spectators. Most of the 104 World Cup Finals games, nine games, will be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, near Dallas, Texas.

USA begins in Los Angeles

Meanwhile, with the opening match on June 11, 2026, the Aztec Stadium in the Mexican capital will become the first stadium in World Cup history to host matches in three finals. The 1986 World Cup finals were held there with Argentine legend Diego Maradona's famous “Hand of God” in the quarter-finals against England, and the 1970 finals with Germany's “Match of the Century” in the semi-finals against Italy.

The United States will play its opening match on July 12 in Los Angeles, and more American matches will be played in Seattle. Canada starts in Toronto. Overall, with eleven venues, the United States has the largest number of venues for the massive World Cup, which will be held for the first time with 48 teams participating. In Mexico, in addition to Mexico City, there are two more places in Guadalajara and Monterrey, and in Canada there are Toronto and Vancouver. While Mexico will host the Men's World Cup for the third time and the United States for the second time, the tournament will be Canada's first.