Dallas has the most World Cup matches of the 16 sites with 9 at the home of the Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys were hopeful the World Cup final would end up in their stadium. They settled for the consolation prize of more matches than any of the 16 sites in the event co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

There are nine matches at the retractable roof venue with the giant video board hanging over the field in suburban Arlington, capped by a semifinal on July 14. The first match is exactly a month earlier, Japan vs. the Netherlands on June 14.

World Cup heavyweights Argentina and England both have matches at Dallas Stadium, normally known as AT&T Stadium.

Dallas-Fort Worth is in the heart of American football country, but has World Cup roots after being one of the host cities in 1994.

North Texas isn't teeming with tourist attractions, but the two most worth checking out are the site of the JFK assassination in downtown Dallas and the Fort Worth Stockyards, just north of downtown. The twice-daily parade of longhorns in the stockyards in as pure Texana as it gets.

Tex-Mex and barbecue are musts, and the options are plentiful. There are chains and mom-and-pops as far-flung as the two base camps — about 30 miles north of Dallas (Frisco) and 30 miles south (Mansfield).

The official fan site is just east of downtown Dallas in Fair Park, home of the Cotton Bowl that was a host venue 32 years ago. The main stage is an amphitheater that normally is a concert venue for major recording artists. There will be plenty more room for fans to roam in the 277-acre park.

Arlington is a city of about 400,000 without mass transportation. The workaround officials settled on for the World Cup is a bus system connecting the Trinity Railway Express stop that is closest to the stadium. The TRE is a train system that connects downtown Dallas and downtown Fort Worth. Officials are recommending a “GoPass” as the best way to access and pay for the transportation. That would include DART, the light-rail system that services Dallas County. The stadium is in Tarrant County.

The 80,000-seat venue might look familiar to some visitors because the standing-room platforms at each end were a vision that grew out of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' visits to Europe when the stadium was being designed. The home of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers is right next to the World Cup venue. There will be plenty of opportunities to take in a baseball game during the monthlong World Cup. Texas Live, a fan-centric collection of bars and restaurants, sits just outside Globe Life Field.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer

FILE - People stand at windows one floor above the 6th floor of the book depository at Dealey Plaza, on the 60th anniversary of former President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Nov. 22, 2023, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

FILE - People watch as longhorn steers are moved through the Stockyards National Historic District as part of world's only twice daily cattle drive, April 21, 2023, in Forth Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE - A person uses a cell phone to take pictures of an X on Elm Street at Dealey Plaza, one of two spots marked where President John F. Kennedy was shot, as people gather on the 60th anniversary of his assassination, Nov. 22, 2023, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

FILE - Mexico's Javier Hernandez (14) celebrates with teammates after scoring a penalty kick during a friendly soccer match against Argentina at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Sept. 8, 2015. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A former Polish justice minister sought in his homeland for alleged abuse of power says he has traveled from Hungary to the U.S., prompting prosecutors in Poland to say Monday that they're investigating whether he was assisted in evading liability.

Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party that ran Poland between 2015 and 2023. That administration established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to faraway locations.

Ziobro announced in January that he had been granted asylum in Hungary, then led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

On Sunday, Ziobro told right-wing Polish broadcaster Republika that he had arrived in the United States the previous day — coinciding with the inauguration in Budapest of Orbán's successor, Péter Magyar, who defeated the longtime leader in an election last month. He said that he was using a document granted to him along with his right to asylum, Polish news agency PAP reported.

Current Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government came to power in late 2023 with ambitions to roll back the judicial changes made by its predecessor, but efforts to undo them have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the nationalist right.

In October, prosecutors requested the lifting of Ziobro’s parliamentary immunity to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused a fund for victims of violence, including for the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.

Tusk’s party says Law and Justice used Pegasus to spy illegally on political opponents while in power. Ziobro says he acted lawfully.

On Monday, the national prosecutor's office said in a social media post that it was investigating the whereabouts of Ziobro, and looking into whether other individuals assisted him in "fleeing and evading criminal liability, thereby obstructing the investigation into the justice fund."

Current Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said in a post on X Sunday evening that Poland had invalidated Ziobro's travel documents, including his diplomatic passport, and that Warsaw will ask the U.S. and Hungary about the legal basis for Ziobro to leave Hungarian territory and enter the United States.

Ziobro's travels raise the possibility of tension between Warsaw and Washington.

Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maciej Wewiór told The Associated Press that “we don’t want this issue to become political."

“Our relationship with the U.S. goes much deeper than what happens with Ziobro," he said. "But we do want our citizen to eventually return to Poland and face justice.”

FILE - Former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro speaks to reporters alongside in Warsaw, Poland, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, file)