The Major League Soccer (MLS) entered its 28th edition this year and jam-packed football stadiums in America undoubtedly speak volumes about the rising popularity of the game in the country. America’s craze for the game paid off after it earned the 2026 FIFA World Cup hosting rights. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has now said that he would love to make plans for hosting Premier League and Champions League games in the country. “I would assume that Man United and Arsenal view this as a good brand, putting your best players out there, 82,000 fans in New York, New Jersey. I’d love to think that it would happen,” Murphy said.
Attendance for a football match in the United States set an incredible record during the summer tour match between Real Madrid and Manchester United back in 2014. The two European giants had clashed against each other at that point in time at the Michigan Stadium in front of a record US crowd of 109,318 in Ann Arbor. Previous record attendance for a football game in the US was 101,799 during the 1984 Olympic final between France and Brazil at the Rose Bowl in California.
Premier League giants Arsenal and Manchester United recently faced each other in a friendly match in New Jersey. Governor Murphy now thinks that a competitive European soccer game can certainly have the same impact as the NFL International Series.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin had previously dropped a hint about having a Champions League final in US. “It is possible. We started to discuss about that, but then one year, it is the World Cup, 2024 is Euro, this year is Istanbul, ’24 in London, ‘25 in Munich. And after that, let’s see. It’s possible, it’s possible. Football is extremely popular in United States these days,” Ceferin was quoted as saying.
There is no official word yet on America’s chances of hosting a Premier League or Champions League match but during the next edition of the FIFA World Cup, the country will leave no stone unturned to prove its football-friendly nature. The US were chosen as one of the co-hosts of the 2026 FIFA World Cup along with Mexico and Canada.
A YouGov online survey of professional football fans from across America found that 21 per cent of those polled wanted the FIFA World Cup summit clash to be played in New York/New Jersey. Around 25 percent of those polled wanted the final match to be played in Los Angeles.
