World Cup to be played at MetLife Stadium

It’s official—the World Cup is coming to New Jersey in 2026.
On February 4th, FIFA, the International Federation of Association Football that governs football (also known as “soccer”) across the globe, held a live ceremony to announce the match schedule for the 2026 World Cup. They announced where the 2026 World Cup will be held. To everyone’s surprise, East Rutherford, New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium was chosen as one of the locations.
The matches will be played across three different countries in North America—including Canada, Mexico, and the United States from June 11th, 2026 to July 19th, 2026. The 104-game World Cup tournament will span across 3 different regions (West, East, and Central) in 16 collective cities in total. The U.S. will be hosting the most matches with a combined number of 78 matches in 11 cities, Mexico hosting 13 matches in 3 cities, and Canada hosting 13 matches as well in 2 cities.
The 2026 World Cup will begin with 5 opening game matches in Mexico City and the World Cup final of 8 matches will be the ones actually played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
Because of MetLife being the host of the World Cup final, this gives a chance for New Jersey residents, as well as those across the United States, to be able to see the World Cup be played, and fans are ecstatic.
Collin Schlosser ‘24 was present at the time of the MetLife game where the announcement of the World Cup final was made. He says, “I think that it is such an incredible honor for New Jersey to be hosting the World Cup Final. There was tough competition from other cities across the continent, but with the incredible work that Governor Murphy, Mayor Adams, their teams, and the people of New York/New Jersey put into obtaining this achievement, we proved that New Jersey deserved to not only host the final of the world’s largest sporting event, but also be shown off for the world to see.”
The declaration of New Jersey’s hosting of the final came as a shock to most, as Los Angeles, California’s SoFi Stadium and Dallas, Texas’ AT&T Stadium had both made it clear that they wanted to host the final, but due to the stadium’s size and restrictions, SoFi was not was not chosen. By consequence, many believed that Dallas would end up being the host city due to its state-of-the-art facilities and attractive attributes; however, Governor Murphy of New Jersey and Mayor Adams of New York City’s pitch to FIFA regarding the benefits of MetLife Stadium to host one of the world’s great sporting events in one of the world’s most famous cities secured its spot as the final’s host city.
With the announcement of the host city, many conflicting points of view regarding MetLife being chosen came to be. Tanner Pagel ‘26 says, “I think it’s cool that New Jersey was chosen, but I don’t think the final will be as exciting as if it was hosted in a different city.” On the contrary, Colin Peterson ‘26 states, “Having such a big event being so close to our hometown is a really exciting opportunity.
With New Jersey’s hosting of the World Cup final, the state has now joined the many countries across the globe who have hosted the final, allowing a showcase of New Jersey’s capability and worthiness to be presented with this distinction.