General view inside the venue before the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Friday.
There have been many components to Philadelphia’s quest to host the 2026 World Cup, some dating back a decade or more. From Philadelphia’s decision to apply to host in 2017 to the naming of Lincoln Financial Field as a venue in 2022, next summer’s World Cup is the culmination of a long process.
The last big piece clicked into place Saturday.
Philadelphia learned the identities of eight countries that will come to the Linc for five group-stage games. The visitors include powers Brazil and France, two games for Ivory Coast and a third top-10 team in the FIFA World Rankings in Croatia.
“We are absolutely delighted with the draw that Philadelphia received,” Philadelphia Soccer 2026 CEO Meg Kane said Saturday. “Obviously the headline is that Brazil and France are coming, but we also got some incredible teams.”
Friday’s World Cup draw slotted teams into 12 groups, which left Philadelphia with two possible matchups for it five group stage games. FIFA aligned those games to locations and times overnight, taking into account kickoff times, broadcast windows, time zones, potential weather challenges and travel.
The Philadelphia games are (all times EDT):
The Linc will also host a July 4 Round of 16 match. The teams will be the survivor of the Group E winner against a third-place team, and the winner of the Group I champ against a third-place team. That kickoff is at 5 p.m.
The field is set for the @FIFAWorldCup in Philly! 🏆#DOOP pic.twitter.com/ZEdaGQHnUN
The matchups supply the most concrete step for the Philadelphia bid, which has been operating in generalities since being awarded six matches in the Feb. 2024 allocation of dates. It allows Philadelphia Soccer 2026 to reach out to fan groups and national delegations, to tailor their advertising around specific players and teams and to begin discussions with counterparts in countries that will be sending teams to Philadelphia. By knowing which teams aren’t coming, the committee can also direct resources toward fan activations and watch parties through its fan festival at Lemon Hill.
The draw is about as good as Philadelphia could expect. It will get nine different teams for the group stage games and could get 11 unique teams for 12 spots. Of the Pot 1 teams – that is the nine top-ranked teams in the world plus the three co-hosts – Philadelphia landed Brazil and France. It missed out on Germany and England, though Germany would be in the July 4 Round of 16 game if seeds hold.
It also gets two of the world’s biggest stars in France’s Kylian Mbappe and Luka Modric of Croatia.
Kickoff times are mostly clustered in the afternoon. The first game is a 7 p.m. kick, and Brazil-Haiti will start at 9 p.m. on Friday night.
The 5 p.m. kickoff on July 4 allows the game to “complementary but not in competition” with other events around America’s 250th anniversary, in Kane’s words.
“We just think this is going to be such an opportunity to see so many of our local communities and residents really shine,” Kane said, “to really enjoy this tournament in a way that I think is going to be so incredibly memorable for the entire city and the region.”
A look at the teams taking part:
June 14: Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador, 7 (Group E)
Ivory Coast missed the last two World Cups but had appeared in three straight from 2006-14. The three-time Africa Cup of Nations champion has never escaped its World Cup group. Ranked 42nd by FIFA, the Elephants went 8-0-2 in CAF qualifying.
Ecuador was a somewhat surprising second in CONMEBOL qualifying, its 8-2-8 record trailing only Argentina in the 10-team qualification tournament. La Tri has qualified for five of the last seven World Cups, making it out of the group in 2006. Ranked No. 23 by FIFA, fifth among South American sides, it finished third in a group with Netherlands, Senegal and host Qatar at the 2022 World Cup.
June 19: Brazil vs. Haiti, 9 p.m. (Group C)
Brazil and Haiti will put on a Friday night show. Brazil is the five-time champion and seven-time finalist. But it has fallen on less illustrious times, in the short term and beyond.
Le Selecao has advanced past the quarterfinals only once in the last five tournaments (2014, when it finished fourth). It has struggled mightily in the last two years, finishing fifth in CONMEBOL qualifying. Now led by legendary Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti in a hail Mary to save their qualifying campaign, Brazil is just 10-7-8 in all competitions since late 2023. It lost in the quarterfinals of Copa America in 2024.
Haiti is back in the World Cup for the first time since 1974 and the second time in the country’s history. It will have local ties: Union midfielder Danley Jean Jacques was central to qualification, as was Penn grad and USL defender Duke Lacroix.
Ranked 84th by FIFA, it is the second-lowest among the 42 qualified squads, two spots below the side it finished second to in CONCACAF Group C in qualification, Curacao.
Haiti promises to be one of the lightning rods for controversy in the tournament, as it and Iran are the two qualified nations among 12 on a U.S. government travel ban list. That bars fans from the country from obtaining visas and could complicate the team’s ability to bring a full staff for the tournament.
“Our job is to be prepared to welcome every fan that wants to come to Philadelphia to be part of the World Cup, whether they are from Haiti, whether they are from France, whether they are from Curacao or any of the other teams that are coming here,” Kane said. “We are going to be intentional in welcoming every fan of every team to Philadelphia.”
June 22: France vs. Bolivia/Suriname/Iraq, 4 p.m. (Group I)
France is a two-time champion, winning in 2018 and 1998. It made the final in 2022, losing a classic to Argentina in penalties. Many from that generation – captain Hugo Lloris, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Karim Benzema – have retired. But in Kylian Mbappe, Les Bleus have one of the World Cup’s most bankable stars to front an inexhaustible well of talent.
France was were unbeaten in UEFA qualification at 5-0-1 and are ranked third in the world by FIFA.
The other spot will be decided via inter-confederation playoffs in Mexico in March. Iraq (58th in the FIFA rankings) is the top seed and will take on the winner of Bolivia (76th) and Suriname (123rd).
Suriname is vying for its first World Cup berth, though the former Dutch colony has long produced many of that nation’s most iconic footballers, among them current Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk. Iraq made the World Cup only once, in 1986. Bolivia’s last World Cup was in 1994 in the U.S.
June 25: Curacao vs. Ivory Coast, 4 p.m. (Group E)
Curacao will be a media darling at the tournament. It’s the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup, the Dutch constituent island’s population of 185,000 smaller than previous holder Iceland. Better known as a baseball nation (Andruw Jones, Kenley Jansen, Jurickson Profar), legendary Dutch coach Dick Advocaat leads the team ranked 82nd in the world, taking advantage of the co-hosts from CONCACAF.
June 27: Croatia vs. Ghana, 5 p.m. (Group L)
In Croatia, Philadelphia gets another of the tournament’s iconic faces: Talismanic captain Luka Modric, vying for another World Cup at age 40. Modric stands at 194 caps and, with three pre-World Cup friendlies, could make his 200th career appearance in the third game of the World Cup in Philadelphia. (Only two male players have ever done that, and Lionel Messi stands at 196.)
Croatia remains one of the best teams in the world. It reached the final in 2018 and finished third in 2022.
Ghana’s quarterfinal berth in 2010 was a watershed for African nations. But it didn’t qualify for the World Cup in 2018 and didn’t escape the group in either 2014 or 2022. The Black Stars are the fourth-lowest ranked team of the 42 confirmed for the field at 72. They went 8-1-1 in World Cup qualification.
