FIFA and Global Citizen are teaming up to give the FIFA World Cup final game its own Super Bowl-style halftime show, the first of which will be in 2026. The two organizations announced the news Saturday during the annual Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. Global Citizen — an advocacy organization that produces entertainment events with the goal of ending world hunger — will produce the halftime show as part of a four-year agreement.
The first halftime show will be at the World Cup final game scheduled for New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19, 2026. The announcement was made midway through Global Citizen’s signature festival in New York City by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans, and one of the latter org’s official ambassadors, actor Hugh Jackman, as DJ Khalid and Gayle King looked on. They emphasized the partnership between FIFA and Global Citizen is not just to put on a show but to help end extreme poverty and increase access to sports and quality education for children around the world.
The lack of a halftime show for the internationally viewed game has been a subject of conjecture, with the New York Times speculating about it earlier this year in a story with the headline: “Would a half-time show work for the World Cup or Champions League final?” Now, FIFA and Global Citizen have provided the answer: It was just as much of a no-brainer as everyone thought. (Excepting those who believed impatient Europeans would never sit sti.
