2026 World Cup Final To Be Afternoon Match at MetLife Stadium on July 19

The World Cup final will kick off at 3 p.m. EDT next July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

FIFA announced the start times for the tournament's 104 matches on Saturday, a day after the draw for the expanded 48-nation tournament to be played in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The kickoff time allows for prime-time viewing in Europe, where it will be 9 p.m., and Britain, where it will be 8 p.m.

MetLife is open air. The average 3 p.m. temperature over the past 30 years in East Rutherford on July 19 is 83 degrees (28 Celsius) with a RealFeel index of 89 (32), according to AccuWeather.

Nine of the 10 World Cup finals from 1978 through 2014 started in the 2-3:30 p.m. EDT range, the exception being 2002 in Japan, which began at 7 a.m. EDT. The 2018 final started at 11 a.m. EDT and the 2022 championship of a tournament shifted to winter in Qatar at 10 a.m. EST.

The 1994 final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, kicked off at 12:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. EDT).

FIFA announced the schedule and sites after factoring in travel and broadcast.

"Let’s just say it’s been a long night — or a short night," chief tournament officer Manolo Zubiria said. "As I explained earlier to some of the coaches, we’ve tried to basically strike the right balance looking at the preparation, the recovery that the teams have to do in this very large footprint, the biggest World Cup ever, 16 cities, three countries, different climatic conditions, time zones."

Zubira said goals included "trying to minimize travel for the teams and the fans to try to see their teams play, and obviously trying to see how to best expose this competition to the world, trying to find the right times for the kickoff times in specific cities, taking into consideration some restrictions."

There are 54 day games and 50 starting at 6 p.m. or later local time. Twenty-four of 32 knockout matches are day games, including 14 of the last 16 games.

FIFPRO, the global players' union, in June said afternoon Cup games in Kansas City, Missouri, and Miami Gardens, Florida, had "extremely high risk" of heat-related injury, Foxborough, Guadalajara and Philadelphia had "very high risk" and East Rutherford and Inglewood had "high risk."

Kansas City has all night games while Miami has a pair of 5 p.m. starts and five night matches.

At the 1994 tournament in the U.S., there were seven night games among the 52 matches, none in the knockout phase.

The opener at Mexico City on June 11 between El Tri and South Africa will start at 1 p.m. local (3 p.m. EDT).

Semifinals will start at 2 p.m. (3 p.m. EDT) on July 14 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and 3 p.m. the following day at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, both of which have retractable roofs.

Quarterfinals will begin at 4 p.m. on July 9 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and noon (3 p.m. EDT) the following day at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The last two quarterfinals are on July 11, starting at 5 p.m. at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium and 8 p.m. (9 p.m. EDT) at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium. Of the quarterfinal venues, SoFi has a roof, but air from the outside can flow in, and the other three are open air.

FIFA announced on Feb. 4 last year that the final was scheduled for New Jersey and on June 12 revealed site-specific matchups for games in the new round of 32, round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals.

Seventy-eight games will be in the U.S., including all from the quarterfinals on, and 13 apiece in Canada and Mexico.

During an event at the Capital Hilton, FIFA also announced the sites of the 54 group stage games not finalized with Friday's draw, which fixed venues for only Groups A, B and D — which include the co-hosts.

South Korea is the only team other than Canada and Mexico with no games in the U.S., playing its opener in Guadalajara against the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland or North Macedonia, then facing El Tri at the same venue and finishing the round against South Africa in Monterrey.

The U.S. first-round games will be a 6 p.m. local start (9 p.m. EDT) against Paraguay at Inglewood on June 12, a noon kickoff (3 p.m. EDT) vs. Australia at Seattle seven days later and a 7 p.m. start on June 25 at SoFi against Turkey, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo.

Japan’s Group F game against Tunisia at Monterrey, Mexico, on June 20 will be the 1,000th World Cup match and kicks off at 10 p.m. local time (midnight EDT).

"We had to keep in mind the public and the locals that they weren’t put in drastic weather conditions," Zubiria said.

Germany’s June 14 Group E opener against Curaçao will kick off at noon local (1 p.m. EDT) at NRG Stadium. Curaçao has the smallest population of a country to reach the World Cup at about 150,000.

"It will be played in Houston, which is a closed venue, indoor, so nobody can complain about heat or weather or wind or whatever," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said.

To play on both sides of the country, Canada starts in Toronto on June 12 against Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland or Wales, and then plays in Vancouver, British Columbia, against Qatar and Switzerland. Canada coach Jesse Marsch intends to go to Santa Clara for the Qatar-Switzerland game.

"Everything looks favorable for us. We’re excited to play at home. Wish it was tomorrow," he said.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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FIFA Men's World Cup