Arsenal and Manchester City will be clashing for the 2026 FA Community Shield, but the final won’t be held at the iconic Wembley Stadium.
Arsenal and Manchester City are set to go head-to-head for the first trophy of the 2026-27 season in the 2026 FA Community Shield. However, Sunday’s match will break with long-standing English tradition, as the iconic Wembley Stadium will not serve as the backdrop for this year’s edition.
In English soccer, Wembley Stadium stands as the country’s ultimate cathedral, serving as the home pitch for both the men’s and women’s national teams while hosting the biggest domestic fixtures on the calendar. From lower-division promotion playoff finals to the FA Cup and Carabao Cup showpieces, Wembley has also consistently hosted the Community Shield in recent years.
The fixture brings together the reigning Premier League champions and FA Cup winners from the previous campaign to battle in England’s equivalent of a super cup. Situated in London, Wembley typically provides an ideal neutral venue for traveling supporters, though 2026 will mark a rare departure from that setup.
The 2026 Community Shield will not take place at Wembley Stadium because Canadian pop superstar The Weeknd is scheduled to perform his “After Hours til Dawn” tour at the venue on the exact same day. With the stadium booked and configured for a massive concert, hosting both events simultaneously was impossible, forcing the FA to relocate the match.
General view outside the Wembley Stadium. (Getty Images)
Where is the 2026 FA Community Shield being held?
Forced away from Wembley, the 2026 Community Shield will actually take place outside of England, heading west into Wales. The clash between Arsenal and Manchester City will instead be hosted at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, a venue capable of holding 74,500 fans.
This marks only the third time since 2007 that the Community Shield has moved away from London, and the first time it returns to Wales since 2006. Between 2001 and 2006, while the original Wembley Stadium was being demolished and rebuilt, the fixture was held at Principality Stadium for six consecutive years, making this a 20-year anniversary return to the Welsh capital.
Other venues have also held the Community Shield
First established in 1908 as the Charity Shield, the competition did not make Wembley its permanent host venue until 1974. In the decades prior, historic grounds such as Stamford Bridge, Highbury, White Hart Lane, Old Trafford, Maine Road, The Den, Molineux, and Filbert Street all played host to the annual season opener.
Since the new Wembley Stadium opened its gates in 2007, only three editions of the Community Shield have been moved elsewhere. Villa Park hosted the 2012 match while Wembley served as a venue for the London Olympics, Leicester City’s King Power Stadium hosted in 2022 due to the UEFA Women’s Euro final, and now Cardiff steps in for 2026 due to concert scheduling.