Saudi Arabia Assigned to Austin for FIFA World Cup Base Camp

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation has announced that it has selected Austin, Texas, as its base camp for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The Green Falcons will train at Q2 Stadium, the home of Major League Soccer side Austin FC, and make use of its fields, facilities and meeting space. However, the SAFF has not yet disclosed where the team will stay in terms of accommodation.

A SAFF statement read that Austin had been chosen for its “readiness of sports facilities, the suitability of the climate, the quality of training facilities, and its proximity to the host cities” after a “comprehensive technical and logistical evaluation process.”

Austin was on a brochure of 64 potential base camp locations that were pre-approved by FIFA, with which Austin FC entered into a World Cup hosting agreement last year. The agreement granted FIFA the right to exclusively designate a qualified nation to base its training camp in Austin.

It comes after Saudi Arabia trained at the same site in Austin ahead of a Concacaf Gold Cup match against the United States last June.

Saudi Arabia will begin its Group H campaign against Uruguay on June 15 in Miami, before traveling to Atlanta to face Spain on June 21 and then to Houston to play Cape Verde on June 26.

FIFA World Cup Preparations

Saudi Arabia joins the likes of Germany (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), France (Boston, Massachusetts), Spain (Chattanooga, Tennessee), Croatia (Alexandra, Virginia), South Korea (Guadalajara, Mexico), Colombia (also Guadalajara) and Uruguay (Playa del Carmen, Mexico) in formally confirming their World Cup base camps for this summer. More announcements are expected soon.

Read the full list of confirmed base camps so far here.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, which has been expanded to 48 teams, will begin with Mexico v South Africa on June 11 in Mexico City, with the final being held on July 19 in New York New Jersey.