Why the 2026 Community Shield is Moving to Cardiff

The 2026 FA Community Shield between Arsenal and Manchester City will happen in Cardiff on Sunday, August 16. This is the first time in 20 years that this traditional match will take place in the Welsh capital.

The game will be held at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. This is different from the usual venue, Wembley Stadium.

The Premier League says the change is because music star The Weeknd's “After Hours Til Dawn” tour is set for Wembley on the same day as the Community Shield.

This Arsenal vs Manchester City match will be only the third Community Shield played outside Wembley since the stadium reopened in 2007.

Wembley has hosted the Community Shield regularly since 1974. But the match has been held in other places sometimes.

From 2001 to 2006, the game took place at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, which was called the Millennium Stadium then. This happened while the new Wembley was being built.

The match returned to Wembley in 2007 and mostly stayed there, with only two exceptions before this year’s move to Cardiff.

In 2012, Manchester City and Chelsea played the Community Shield at Villa Park, home of Aston Villa, because the Olympic Games were happening in London.

A decade later, the game moved again from Wembley.

In 2022, Manchester City faced Liverpool at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium because Wembley was hosting the Women’s European Championship final.

Now in 2026, the Community Shield goes back to Cardiff. This is where the match was held for six years when Wembley was being redeveloped.

The Principality Stadium will host Arsenal and Manchester City for this latest edition of a fixture that has moved around a lot in its history.

The 2026 return to Cardiff is a big change from the recent Wembley tradition. Arsenal and Manchester City will be the first teams to play in the Community Shield at the Principality Stadium since 2006.