Philly officials celebrated the one-year mark from the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Wednesday by unveiling a countdown clock in Dilworth Park.
“In exactly one year, we’ll show the entire world that Philadelphia’s hands down the sports capital of the world,” said Comcast Spectacor Chairman and CEO Dan Hilferty, who is also the chairman of Philadelphia’s host committee.
The clock stands beside Dilworth Park Café & Air Grille. It resembles a giant white smartphone case, with FIFA branding and a World Cup trophy-shaped hole in the center. The digital clock display at the top is counting down to midnight on June 11, 2026, the day of the tournament’s opening match at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. It will be on public display for the entire year.
The World Cup will be jointly hosted by 16 cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field will host six games, including a July Fourth round-of-16 match coinciding with the country’s semiquincentennial celebrations. Overall, FIFA expects 6.5 million fans to travel across the globe for the festivities.
June 11, 2026, will also be the opening day of Philly’s fan-fest location at East Fairmount Park’s Lemon Hill, where fans without game tickets can watch a live broadcast of the action, along with music, food and other entertainment.
“This is more than just a sporting event,” Mayor Cherelle Parker said. “It is a transformative moment that embodies everything that we’re working toward here in the city of Philadelphia, and that is a safer, cleaner and greener Philadelphia with access to economic opportunity for all. And it is going to be amazing to have the world see it.”
The city and the Linc will get a taste of FIFA soccer this summer with the Club World Cup, which features the best club teams in the world, as opposed to the best national teams that will be competing next year. This edition of the Club World Cup greatly expands the field, from seven teams to 32, competing for a total tournament prize pool of $1 billion. The Linc will host eight games, including a quarterfinal on July 4.
Meg Kane, Philadelphia Soccer 2026’s host city executive, said that the group will be closely following how this year’s tournament — which they do not organize — handles logistics like transportation, safety and security. The two tournaments are not an apple-to-apples comparison.
“What is happening at the Linc over the next three weeks is a great test run for a lot of things, but it is not a mirror of what next summer is going to feel like,” Kane said.
Philadelphia Soccer 2026’s year-out celebrations also include events with youth soccer players. On Tuesday, the group gifted 25 players from the Safe-Hub Philadelphia program in Kensington with tickets to an upcoming Philadelphia Union match. On Wednesday evening, there will be a youth soccer clinic at Penn Park, with Union captain Alejandro Bedoya and mascot Phang in attendance.
Kane said that the tournament offers Philadelphia’s youth a great introduction to soccer, and for those already familiar, the chance to “make it real.”
“We saw a spike of 30 percent in youth participation in soccer in 1994 [when the U.S. last hosted the World Cup]. I would expect very similar, if not greater, participation coming out of 2026,” Kane said.
Bedoya, now 38, was a regular on the United States men’s national soccer team roster and played at the 2014 World Cup. Some of his first World Cup memories go back to the first time the U.S. hosted the tournament in 1994. His father and grandfather, who both had tickets and were following the Colombian national team, took him to a tailgate outside then-Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. He wore a giant blond wig to look like the iconic Colombian midfielder Carlos “El Pibe” Valderrama.
His home also served as a watch party spot for friends and family to catch the Colombia games on TV.
“Those memories stayed with me. Obviously seeing the passion that my folks had for the game of soccer, as well as my family members, just became something that I could not obviously control,” Bedoya said at the Penn Park soccer clinic. “And ever since then, I just became very passionate about the game of soccer and it made me want to become a professional soccer player, because I idolized those players during that ‘94 World Cup, and the years following that.”
Union defender Neil Pierre, 17, was with Bedoya at the clinic. His first vivid and inspiring World Cup memory was from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, watching Brazilian David Luiz’s goal from a free kick against Colombia.
“It was just like, damn, and it was a center back [Pierre’s position] too,” he recalled. “So it was kind of like a perfect scenario.”
Nine-year-old Jrue Johnson was one of the youth players at the clinic. He said he was very excited for the World Cup to come to Philly and listed out some of the players he’d like to see play if he’s able to get tickets: Kylian Mbappé, Vinicius Jr., Jude Bellingham, Yamine Lamal and Lionel Messi, who’s Inter Miami jersey he was wearing at the the clinic.
Johnson said that every day before school he watches a different player to try and learn one of their signature skills. This morning it was a pull back by French player Paul Pogba.
Did he get a chance to show it off in the Penn Park scrimmage?
“Nope, because not that many people passed to me,” he said.
Bedoya won’t be on the field for the next World Cup. Instead, he’s helping Philly prepare as an honorary co-chair with Philadelphia Soccer 2026. Part of that role is injecting the same passion he had in 1994 into today’s youth.
“We’re here at an event where there’s a lot of young kids rocking all types of jerseys from different clubs, [different] individuals and from different countries, which is exciting, which is amazing to see,” he said. “I think this next World Cup should be a major inflection point in terms of the continued growth of soccer in our country, just like ‘94 was.”
