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Trump Presents Trophy at $11K Spain-Argentina Final Amid Smoke

7/18/2026

26 5 Full Breakdown

Summary

Trump Presents Trophy

The 2026 final will be held Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, with Spain and Argentina.
Tickets cost $7,595 and average $11,327 on resale, the highest price for a U.S. sporting event.
President Donald Trump will attend and present the trophy with FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
An 11-minute halftime show with Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and BTS will run despite hazardous air quality from Canadian wildfire smoke.

Summary

FIFA Raises

Ticket sales for FIFA’s Global Citizen Education Fund have raised over $50 million toward its $100 million goal.
The halftime show linked to the fund will be broadcast by FOX in English, Telemundo in Spanish, and streamed by SBS in Australia.
The tournament has logged 20 billion video views globally, dwarfing the Super Bowl’s 125.6 million audience.
An Economist poll now ranks soccer as America’s third-favorite sport, ahead of baseball.

History

Historical Context

After FIFA awarded the 1994 World Cup to the United States on July 4 1988, the tournament set a record 3,587,538 spectators and spurred the creation of Major League Soccer in 1993. That success underpinned the joint United-States-Canada-Mexico bid, which won the 2026 hosting vote on June 13 2018, promising a new commercial surge for U.S. soccer.

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Trump Presents Trophy

The 2026 final will be held Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, with Spain and Argentina.
Tickets cost $7,595 and average $11,327 on resale, the highest price for a U.S. sporting event.
President Donald Trump will attend and present the trophy with FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
An 11-minute halftime show with Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and BTS will run despite hazardous air quality from Canadian wildfire smoke.

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