MetLife Stadium selected to host 2026 World Cup soccer games

MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford has been selected to host 2026 World Cup soccer games.

News 12 Staff

Jun 16, 2022, 4:19 PM

Updated 848 days ago

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MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford has been selected to host 2026 World Cup soccer games.
FIFA made the announcement Thursday afternoon. The games will take place at stadiums throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada.
MetLife Stadium has 87,000 seats. It was one of the few venues to make the cut. FIFA chose 16 cities to host games, including Boston, Philadelphia, Guadalajara and Toronto. New Jersey will share duties with New York.
East Rutherford has held major events in the past at MetLife Stadium, including Super Bowl XLVIII IN 2014.
Giants Stadium hosted many of the 1994 World Cup games.
Gov. Phil Murphy, New York Mayor Eric Adams and other leaders held a watch party at Liberty State Park in Jersey City ahead of the announcement.
"Soccer has a way of bridging us all together. In this region, there's nowhere else on the globe where diversity reigns. Two hundred different languages are spoken in New York and New Jersey,” Adams said.
It was not currently known which games will be held at MetLife.
"In as much as we want the early games, we want the last game,” Murphy said. “We want that World Cup Trophy hoisted right up the road in MetLife Stadium."
The United States will host 60 matches.