A seven-week break is built into next year’s Major League Soccer calendar to permit players to compete in the World Cup.
The 2026 schedule release on Thursday showed MLS will pause from May 25 — FIFA’s mandatory player reporting date — until July 16 to accommodate the 48-team tournament, which the United States is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico.
The World Cup kicks off June 11. Only the final, set for July 19 in East Rutherford, N.J., will take place after the resumption of MLS play.
The seven-week hiatus is considerably longer than past World Cup breaks, which totaled two weeks in 2010 and 2014 and nine days in 2018. The MLS season did not overlap with the 2022 World Cup, which was staged in Qatar from November to December.
Inter Miami’s road match against Los Angeles FC at the LA Coliseum headlines the opening slate of play on Saturday, Feb. 21. The entire 30-team league is in action that weekend.
Lionel Messi’s Miami side gets to christen a new 25,000-seat stadium, Miami Freedom Park, in its April 4 home debut against Austin FC.
The All-Star Game is scheduled for July 29 in Charlotte, N.C.
All MLS clubs will play 34 matches — 17 home and 17 away — including two apiece against each conference foe and a total of six against non-conference opposition.
The end of the regular season on Nov. 7 and the start of the postseason on Nov. 18 bookend a FIFA international window. The playoffs will proceed for a month without interruption, though the league has yet to release the full postseason schedule.
After 2026, the MLS campaign will no longer run from February through December. A shortened, 14-game 2027 season will help transition MLS to a summer-to-spring calendar mirroring those of other global leagues beginning in 2027-28.
–Field Level Media
