ONLY IN AMNEWYORK
The next two summers will provide benchmark moments for MetLife Stadium, taking the home of the New York Giants and Jets to a completely separate stratosphere upon the world’s sporting stage.
While the East Rutherford, NJ venue has hosted its fair share of premiere events, most notably a Super Bowl 11 years ago, millions of soccer fans will flood to the New York City area over the next year—a pilgrimage to the beautiful game’s biggest events.
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is coming to the United States in less than three months, and with it comes the world’s best domestic teams and most recognizable brands in a truly competitive environment. While MetLife Stadium and other venues around the country have played their part in hosting friendly matches between some of the planet’s best clubs, the Club World Cup gives these teams something to truly play for.
This will be the best brand of club soccer this country has ever seen.
MetLife Stadium — one of 12 host sites — and the New York City area will be at the epicenter of it all.
Starting June 15, the second day of the 32-team tournament, MetLife will host five group-stage clashes. The matches feature Brazilian powerhouses Palmeiras and Fluminense, 30-time Portuguese champions Porto, one of the most popular clubs on the planet, Germany’s Borussia Dortmund, 44-time Egyptian champions Al-Ahly, and three-time reigning Korean champions Ulsan HD—clubs that were carefully selected to reflect the diverse demographic of New York City.
New York City has the densest Egyptian and Brazilian populations in the United States. California is the only city in the country with a larger Korean population than the Big Apple.
“We know what New York and the New York area can bring,” FIFA Club World Cup Chief Tournament Officer Manolo Zubiria told amNewYork. “Probably all of the nationalities of the teams and the players that are playing with these clubs are somehow represented through the communities in the metropolitan area, in nearby cities or states. We hope to be drawing from that. That’s why there’s a variety of teams coming through. Hopefully it will give the opportunity to those fans that maybe haven’t had a chance to see these teams live in years. Maybe they don’t get back home often or get the opportunity to experience it, and that’s why some particular games, some nationalities, were specifically picked to play at MetLife, to bring the teams and the games closer to them.”
The New York/New Jersey area is not done there, though. MetLife Stadium will host the quarterfinal, both semifinals and the Final, with an estimated 5 billion viewers worldwide set to watch, according to FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
This tournament is just an appetizer. Next summer comes the holy grail of all sporting events as the 2026 World Cup arrives on American shores, with MetLife Stadium chosen to host the Final.
“It says it right there, the confidence that we have with the host city and the host stadium in having two back-to-back finals of FIFA’s two competitions,” Zubiria said. “That says a lot about the work relationship, the support, and the readiness [of New York].”
While he would not go as far as to say that the Club World Cup would serve as a dress rehearsal for the summer of 2026, this year provides a test run to see what runs smoothly and what could be improved on — and not just at the venue itself.
“It does give us an opportunity to have a 12-month buffer period to adjust and maybe tweak a little thing here or there,” Zubiria continued. “It provides opportunities to test many things, not just in the stadium but in the city, the base camps, transportation, guest services, team arrivals, and team movement. So there’s a whole wide range of things that we’ll be looking at to execute the same way we would in 26, and then we have the opportunity to even perfect it and get things even better for 26. Thankfully, we have that opportunity.”
