Subaru Park, the home of Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union, will be the team base camp for the Ivory Coast national soccer team during the summer, the Union and Philly’s host city committee announced on Tuesday.
The team — which FIFA will refer to as Côte d’Ivoire — will train at the Union’s stadium and its adjacent WSFS Bank Sportsplex in Chester, while staying in Wilmington.
“Hosting Côte d’Ivoire on our campus is a tremendous honor for the Philadelphia Union and our entire region,” said Philadelphia Union President Tim McDermott in a statement. “We’ve built one of the most unique sports campuses in North America specifically to support and develop world-class soccer, and there’s no better validation of that vision than welcoming recent African champions to train here.”
As the FIFA World Cup approaches, the competing nations have been selecting their team base camps — the central locations — where they will stay and train when not playing games in the tournament’s three assigned regions, which span across Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
Being close to Philadelphia makes sense for the Ivory Coast — nicknamed “Les Éléphants” — since they play two of their three group stage matches at Lincoln Financial Field: the first against Ecuador in the stadium’s opening game on June 14 and then against Curaçao on June 25. The team’s non-Philly game is against Germany in Toronto on June 20.
It’s unclear how many fans will come from Ivory Coast to see their team play here as the country was added to the “partially restricted” ban list by the Trump administration in December.
Before the Ivory Coast’s announcement, the closest confirmed team base camp was Brazil’s in Morristown, New Jersey, at the New York Red Bulls’ facilities.
This summer’s tournament will be the nation’s fourth World Cup appearance, and the first back after failing to qualify for the last two iterations in 2018 and 2022. The team’s best finish was 17th place in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
That said, the Ivory Coast has been a continental powerhouse with three Africa Cup of Nations championship wins, most recently in 2023. The team reached the quarterfinals in this year’s cup, losing to the eventual fourth-placed team Egypt. The team is currently ranked 37th in FIFA’s global rankings.
Former players have played for some of the world’s best club teams, including striker Didier Drogba and brothers Yaya and Kolo Touré.
“Côte d’Ivoire was one of two unbeaten group winners that did not concede a goal in its 10 outings during qualifying,” said Philadelphia Soccer 2026’s host city executive Meg Kane. “This is a team to be reckoned with in the FIFA World Cup 2026 and Philadelphia, Chester, and our entire region love a team to be reckoned with.”
The Linc, which will be called “Philadelphia Stadium” during the tournament, is one of the World Cup’s 16 host stadiums and will host six of the 104 matches: five group stage games and a round of 16 clash on the Fourth of July. Here’s Philly’s full schedule:
Group stage (all times are ET)
June 14 at 7 p.m: Group E – Ivory Coast vs Ecuador
June 19 at 9 p.m: Group C – Brazil vs Haiti
June 22 at 5 p.m: Group I – France vs Iraq/Bolivia/Suriname
June 25 at 4 p.m: Group E – Curacao vs Ivory Coast
June 27 at 5 p.m. Group L – Croatia vs. Ghana
Round of 16
July 4, 5 p.m.: Winner of Match 74 in Boston vs. Winner of Match 77 in New York/New Jersey
The whole tournament spans from the opening game in Mexico City on June 11 to the final at East Rutherford, N.J.’s Metlife Stadium on July 19.
