WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 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 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.
AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - General view of the MetLife stadium during the Club World Cup semifinal soccer match between Fluminense and Chelsea in East Rutherford, N.J., Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith, File)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — World Cup fans in a growing number of U.S. cities won't have an issue finding a well-poured pint to go with their late-night match.
State leaders across the U.S. are signing off on extending bar and restaurant hours during the world’s most-watched sporting event. They want to help businesses and improve fan experiences, particularly for those who may have been priced out of tickets. Others see the move as a last-ditch effort to boost sales as expectations for a World Cup economic boon have dampened.
So far, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington — states either hosting World Cup matches or adjacent to the activity — have all approved various measures to extend hours for alcohol sales during the tournament. Similar proposals are being considered in New York and Massachusetts.
The changes mean that closing time won’t come until 4 a.m. in Philadelphia during the World Cup and America 250 celebrations. In Kansas City, some bars can stay open as late as 5 a.m.
Many of these changes are dependent on municipality approval, and no business would be required to extend business hours. But for the hospitality industry, already struggling under waning sales and inflation, the option to stay open later is welcomed.
Mark Prinzinger, owner of Lion Sports Bar in Philadelphia, described watching soccer with fans from all over the world as a “magical experience." Now that he has the option to keep his bar open two hours longer, he’s hired extra staff, streamlined the menus and planned late-night programming.
“People want to have a beer with other soccer fans and the great thing about the World Cup is that it brings people together from all over the world into one place to watch a sport that everybody loves,” he said.
Prinzinger and other bar, restaurant and nightlife venues in Pennsylvania will be allowed to move their closing times from 2 a.m. until 4 a.m. during the World Cup and the America 250 anniversary celebrations, between June 11 and July 20. Gov. Josh Shapiro approved the legislation by releasing a video showing him cracking open a beer, signing off the social media post with a cheeky warning to the City of Brotherly Love's reputation for getting rowdy: “Celebrate responsibly, Philly.”
With more hours available to drink, some critics have raised concerns about public safety and potential strain on law enforcement even as the effort has received bipartisan support from lawmakers.
In Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas initially stated that his city “doesn't need bars operating 23 hours” during the World Cup and joked, “Worry not, if you want to drink a ton, bars can open quite early.”
Yet bar owners bristle under such opposition, saying that most businesses prioritize training staff to prevent patrons from being overserved.
“Just because people are hanging out at the bar watching a soccer game doesn’t mean they’re getting blitzed,” Prinzinger said. “In fact, I would say it’s completely the opposite. I think people want to watch the game. People want to be engaged.”
Rhode Island Rep. Teresa Tanzi agreed.
“Not everybody that’s going to walk into a place is going to be chugging drinks and getting loaded,” Tanzi, a Democrat, said earlier this month on the House floor. “There are going to be families who are going to want a cheeseburger, an American cheeseburger, and a Coca-Cola."
Rhode Island, which is closer than Boston is to World Cup matches host Gillette Stadium, is weighing whether to extend alcohol sales to 3 a.m. and closing times to 4 a.m. Currently, last call in the smallest U.S. state is 1 a.m., with some exceptions for its capital city of Providence.
Even Lucas relented, eventually submitting a plan allowing Kansas City restaurants and bars to remain open until 3 a.m., and certain establishments to remain open until 5 a.m. if they submit a security plan to the police department. Currently, alcohol sales can generally be made between 6 a.m. through 1:30 a.m.
The extended hours aren't entirely a U.S. trend. Pubs in England and Wales will be able to stay open as late as 2 a.m. if the English or Scottish teams are playing in the knockout stages after the U.K. government relaxed its licensing rules.
In Scotland, which has its own semiautonomous government, local authorities can allow pubs to stay open until 30 minutes after matches end.
According to the World Cup schedule, a majority of games will be held from early afternoon through early evening. But a handful start later, with four games starting at midnight and eight games starting at 10 p.m. for those watching in the Eastern time zone.
Just how big of a demand there will be for late-night bites and drinks is somewhat unknown. In the U.S., consumer habits have shifted drastically ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, with more people choosing to go out earlier in the day and spending less overall, said David Henkes, senior principal at Technomic, a firm that monitors restaurant and food industry trends.
“It’s so hard to stay open late night or overnight just because it’s hard to find labor,” Henkes said. “I applaud the effort to give restaurants an opportunity to earn more revenue, but I’m not sure that there’s going to be significant enough demand for it to make sense for a lot of operators to do so.”
Associated Press writer Brian Melley contributed from London.
AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
Lion Sports Bar owner Mark Prinzinger poses behind the bar as fans watch a Champion league soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
Fans arrive to watch a Champion league soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain at the Lion Sports Bar, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
Fans watch a Champion league soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain at the Lion Sports Bar, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
Fans watch a Champion league soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain at the Lion Sports Bar, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
Fans watch a Champion league soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain at the Lion Sports Bar, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
