Soccer fans from heavyweights England and France may be booking travel to Rhode Island this week, after learning on Saturday that their teams are among the squads scheduled to play World Cup matches at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., this summer.
They will be joined by fans of Ghana, Haiti, Morocco, Norway, and Scotland, who all have matches at what will be known during the men’s World Cup as “Boston Stadium.”
Gillette Stadium is roughly 25 miles northeast of Providence, which is slightly closer than the 29-mile journey from downtown Boston.
The 2026 men’s World Cup will kick off on Thursday, June 11, in Mexico City. But Haiti and Scotland will play the first match at “Boston Stadium” on Saturday, June 13.
Massachusetts is home to one of the largest Haitian communities in the country – the third-largest, according to some estimates.
Local scheduled matches also include France versus Norway, which should include stars like Les Bleus’ Kylian Mbappe and Norway’s Erling Haaland, and England versus Ghana.
Bryant University is in the running to be selected as a basecamp by one of the 48 teams participating in the World Cup. It is currently the only possible site in New England. If a team selects Bryant, they would stay at the Graduate Hotel in Providence, according to the FIFA website.
Bryant is hopeful it will be selected, but as of Sunday, none of the participating soccer federations had visited campus, according to university spokesman Peter Kerwin.
Here are the matches scheduled to be played in Foxborough:
