December 9 – Having held the draw for the group stage of the expanded 32-team Club World Cup, FIFA has now released the venues, dates and kick-off times for the 63 matches.
Matches will be played across 12 stadiums, six of which are the homes of MLS clubs.
The big winners are New York/New Jersey’s Met Life Stadium that will host nine matches, including both semi-finals and the final, Miami’s hard Rock Stadium that will host eight matches, and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, also with eight matches.
The tournament will now open with a stand-alone fixture, with ‘marketing qualifier’ Inter Miami CF setting the tournament in motion at the 65,500-seat Hard Rock Stadium against Egypt’s Al Ahly on June 14.
The final will be played at the Met Life on July 14.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the FIFA scheduling is that having agreed with Concacaf that the CWC would stick to the East coast and the Gold Cup to the West coast, FIFA has scheduled 12 games on the west coast. Concacaf are playing their Gold Cup at exactly the same time as the Club World Cup with FIFA’s 12 matches being scheduled directly against them.
Six games will be played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Los Angeles, and six at the Lumen Field in Seattle. Seattle Sounders have qualified for the CWC while Lumen Field is a 2026 World Cup venue. However, the Rose Bowl has neither an LA team qualified or in residence, nor is the venue on the schedule for 2026.
The LA venue is the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Los Angeles, where Concacaf will be hosting matches.
Groups B and E will bounce between LA and Seattle with the big teams being PSG, Athletico Madrid and Inter Milan. South Americans Botafogo and River Plate provide Brazilian and Argentine interest while FIFA will be hoping Monterey will excite the Mexican Americans – and hoping Concacaf don’t schedule Mexico national team games directly against them.
The schedule will see clubs play group games every fourth day with only six teams having the travel break luxury of playing in the same stadium in the same city for two consecutive matches.
Real Madrid, serial winners of the Club World Cup, will make a South to North trip up the east coast, starting in Miami, moving to Charlotte and completing their group stage in Philadelphia.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: “The paths for the 32 teams have been set and we now know at what time and where, among 12 top-class stadiums, we will enjoy the 48 exciting group stage clashes. Together with another 15 matches in the knockout stage, this match schedule sets 63 dates in the diary of every football fan – those living in the US, traveling from abroad to these beautiful cities to support their clubs, or following live and for free from every corner of the world via DAZN and FIFA+.
“This match schedule is much more than a list of thrilling fixtures involving the best clubs in the world – it shows that club football can, and will be, truly global. Let’s take it to the world.”
Tickets for the 48 group stage matches will open on December 19, exclusively on Fifa.com/tickets.
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