2026 World Cup final will be played in New Jersey

The 2026 World Cup final will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19.

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.

Semifinals will be played on July 14 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and the following day at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Quarterfinals will be 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 US team will train in suburban Atlanta ahead of the tournament and 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.

Seventy-eight of 104 matches of the first World Cup spread over three nations will be played in the United States.

AT&T, which had hopes to present the final, 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.

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