Jackson County welcomes the World
Published on June 08, 2026
Jackson County and the Kansas City area are playing host to FIFA World Cup 2026 from now until July 11.
The area will serve as a home away from home to four national teams that will use local facilities as team base camps. The camps provide training facilities, accommodation and operational support where teams will train, rest and prepare throughout the tournament.
Sporting KC Performance Center is serving as Argentina’s training home base.
Argentina is the current FIFA World Cup champion, having won the most recent World Cup in 2022. The team previously won the World Cup in 1978 and 1986 and has appeared in the World Cup final a total of six times.
Argentina also holds the record for most official international titles with 23.
The team is captained by one of the most famous players in history, Lionel Messi. Messi has the most appearances for the team (198) and has scored the most goals (116).
As of May 5, 2026, Argentina ranks third in the FIFA Men's World Ranking. Argentina is known for having rivalries with Brazil, England, France, Germany, Netherlands and Uruguay.
Swope Soccer Village is England’s training home base.
The English national team is one of the favorites in this year’s World Cup, placing consistently high in professional rankings.
England has competed in the 19 FIFA World Cup tournaments since 1950 and has failed to qualify for the finals only three times and failed to advance from the group stage on three occasions.
The team’s best performance is winning the cup as the host nation in 1966 and finishing in fourth place in 1990 and 2018. The team has also reached the quarterfinals on seven other occasions, the latest in 2022.
KC Current Training Center is Netherland’s home base.
The Dutch have never lost a World Cup match in regular time by more than one goal and have not lost a match since the 2010 final, their 2014 and 2022 campaigns both ending in defeat by way of penalty shoot-out and both by Argentina.
They have a record of three World Cup final appearances without winning the tournament.
After appearing in two consecutive World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978, the team had their longest World Cup appearance streak in the 1990s, reaching three straight tournaments.
In 2010 the team reached their third World Cup final, this time losing to Spain. The Dutch avenged this loss during the first match of the following 2014 World Cup, beating the Spanish 5–1, and eventually going on to their first third-place finish.
University of Kansas is the home base for Algeria.
Algeria has qualified for five FIFA World Cups in 1982, 1986, 2010, 2014 and 2026, once qualifying for the knockout rounds.
Algeria nearly qualified to the second round of the 1982 World Cup after beating both West Germany and Chile; however, a controversial match between West Germany and Austria wound up eliminating the Algerians. In 2014, Algeria qualified for the round of 16 for the first time.
The North African team has won the Africa Cup of Nations twice, as hosts in 1990, and again in Egypt in 2019. They were also champions of the men's football tournament of the 1975 Mediterranean Games, the men's football tournament of the 1978 All-Africa Games, the 1991 Afro-Asian Cup of Nations, and the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup.
Arrowhead Stadium (temporarily Kansas City Stadium) will be the site of four Group Stage matches:
- June 16 – 8 p.m. – Argentina vs. Algeria
- June 20 – 7 p.m. - Ecuador vs. Curacao
- June 25 – 6 p.m. – Tunisia vs. Netherlands
- June 27 – 9 p.m. – Algeria vs. Austria
There will also be a Round of 32 match on July 3, and a Quarterfinal match July 11.
More World Cup Information