Next season’s Community Shield will not be held at the home of English football (Image: GETTY)
It has been announced that next season’s Community Shield will be moved from Wembley entirely outside England. The traditional curtain-raiser, where the Premier League champions face the FA Cup winners, is usually held the weekend before the start of a new top-flight campaign. Normally the match would be played at Wembley, but that won’t be the case when it returns later this year.
The Football Association (FA) has confirmed that the next Community Shield will be held at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The organizing body cited scheduling issues as the reason for the change. Wembley will not be available on selected dates as Canadian pop superstar The Weeknd will be performing at the stadium as part of his After Hours Till Dawn tour.
In a statement, the FA said: “Due to changes to the 2026-27 football calendar, next season’s Premier League will start on the weekend of Saturday 22 August and Wembley Stadium, connected by EE, will not be available on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August due to pre-scheduled concerts.”
“The National Stadium for Wales has a rich history of hosting major football events, including the FA Community Shield six times between 2001 and 2006, and as well as being a neutral venue for competing clubs, it also has one of the largest capacities in the UK for fans to attend.
“Details of the 2026 FA Community Shield, in which the winners of the Emirates FA Cup will face the Premier League champions, will be announced at the earliest possible opportunity after the end of the 2025-26 football season.”
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Crystal Palace are the current holders of the Community Shield, having defeated last season’s Premier League champions Liverpool under the arches at Wembley in August.
Having just won the FA Cup at the end of the 2024/25 season, they won on penalties to claim their second trophy in four months.
The match will be played at the Principality Stadium in the Welsh city of Cardiff. (Image: Getty)
Hugo Ekitike opened the scoring for Liverpool within four minutes and Jean-Philippe Mateta equalized from the penalty spot.
Jeremy Frimpong then restored the Reds’ advantage, but Ismaila Sarr scored a late equalizer for Palace.
As there is no extra time in the Community Shield, the match went straight to penalties and the Eagles held out for a historic victory.
It seems likely that at least one of Arsenal and Manchester City will be involved in the next match, competing to be crowned English champions.
The North Londoners currently lead Josep Guardiola’s side by nine points, despite extra time. Both teams remain in contention to win the FA Cup.
The remaining six teams are Liverpool, Chelsea, West Ham United, Leeds United, Southampton and Port Vale. The quarterfinals will be held on the first weekend of April.
If the team wins the domestic double, they will face the Premier League runners-up in the Community Shield.
