Credit: (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)The joint New York City-New Jersey team-up won its pitch to be one of the regions hosting soccer matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament.
Matches will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford and events are planned for sites across the region.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino made the selection announcements Thursday, naming the host sites for the tournament to be held jointly in the United States, Canada and Mexico. It’s the first time the three countries will host together.
“In 1994, the world got a glimpse of the Meadowlands as a soccer mecca. Now, we are ready to create new memories, and bring even greater life to the Beautiful Game, when we welcome the World Cup to @MetLifeStadium in 2026,” Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted.
In a news release, Murphy’s office said the region is well prepared to welcome visitors and fans, with its five airports, numerous hotels and its place as an “entertainment, tourism, culinary and media capital of the world.”
Site of a final game?
City and state officials are already pushing to be one of the regions selected to host one of the final games in the tournament, one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. Murphy told the New York Times the region already has the infrastructure soccer officials are seeking to host a final.
In addition to matches played at MetLife Stadium, New York City-New Jersey will host FIFA Fan Fest sites around the region. The proposed training facilities are at Rutgers University, Pingry School, Kean University, Red Bull Football Club Training Facility and New York City Football Club Training Facility.
The New York City-New Jersey region last year submitted a joint bid to become one of the regional hosts for soccer matches that will be played in Canada, Mexico and the United States as part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament.
That followed FIFA’s decision in 2018 to accept a North American bid led by the United States that called for the final match to be played in East Rutherford’s MetLife.
The New York City-New Jersey region previously hosted the men’s World Cup in 1994 and the 1999 women’s World Cup, according to the report submitted last year by Murphy and then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In that report’s executive summary, the two leaders pitched New York City and New Jersey as a center of human rights and diversity that has “welcomed millions of people from around the world.”
The report also touted the region’s “vast experience” when it comes to hosting large-scale events and cited a commitment to a “collaborative approach to major security planning.”
Having a ball together
The two leaders also suggested the sport of soccer — which is known as football in most other parts of the world — is a “unifying factor” that “brings people of different races, languages, religions, and traditions together.”
“The beauty of the New York City-New Jersey region is that this unifying spirit is found on pitches and fields right here in our own backyards,” according to the report, which also included letters of support from all of the region’s major-league men’s and women’s professional soccer franchises.
In a social-media post Thursday that included images of the Statue of Liberty and MetLife Stadium, Murphy wrote: “We’re ready to bring the world’s greatest game to the world’s biggest stage!”
Earlier this year, The Associated Press revealed in a broader story highlighting ways states and local governments have been spending federal COVID-19 relief dollars that appeared to have “little to do with combating the pandemic.” According to the article, New Jersey allocated $15 million of its share of pandemic aid for “upgrades to sweeten the state’s bid to host the 2026 World Cup.”
Murphy press secretary Alyana Alfaro Post later defended the expenditure, telling NJ Advance Media that hosting World Cup matches would “bring millions of dollars to New Jersey’s tourism and hospitality industries, two sectors that have faced significant impacts from the pandemic.”
Here are the cities and regions selected to host the tournament in all three countries:
East: Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, New York City/New Jersey
West: Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Guadalajara
Central: Kansas City, Missouri; Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Monterrey, Mexico City
