2026 World Cup Final To Be Afternoon Match at MetLife Stadium on July 19

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 being 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