2026 World Cup in North America
Many German cities forego public viewing
May 6, 2026 – 1:29 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
Many World Cup games in this country don’t start until after midnight – large fan parties are allowed, but there is still a difficulty.
From June 11th, the German national team will be fighting for the title at the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada – but many games only start after midnight according to German time. The Federal Cabinet has decided on exceptions to the noise protection rules in order to enable public viewing after 10 p.m. However, large cities such as Munich, Cologne and Hamburg do not have official fan miles.
The tournament in North America has 17 different kick-off times. The most common time is 9 p.m. kick-off – 19 games. This is followed by 3 a.m. (11 games), 10 p.m. (10 games) and midnight (9 games). Games on the US West Coast – for example in Los Angeles or San Francisco – often start at 3 or 4 a.m. German time. England coach Thomas Tuchel had already assessed the situation last year: “I understand that this will be bad for our fans, for the children, for the young people. I think there will be a lot of truants the next day.”
Fifa Vice President Victor Montagliani also prepared fans and rights partners for disappointment: “Will every game be absolutely perfect in terms of kick-off time and television broadcast? I don’t know.”
The first German preliminary round game against Curaçao starts at 7 p.m. The group games against Ivory Coast and Ecuador start at 10 p.m. A possible round of 16 would be scheduled for 10:30 p.m. A possible round of 16 against France could kick off at 11 p.m. The semi-finals and final start at 9 p.m., the game for third place at 11 p.m.
While there were many fan miles at the home European Championships two years ago, the big cities are holding back this time. There should be no official celebrations in Munich and Nuremberg. A spokesman for Olympiapark München GmbH cited dwindling interest as the reason: “Public viewings are now available in basically every beer garden.” Cologne, Dortmund, Hamburg, Leipzig, Mainz and Stuttgart are also not planning large screens. According to the portal “berlin.de”, a fan mile around the Brandenburg Gate is planned in Berlin – details are still pending.
