In July 1988, FIFA made a decision that surprised the world: the United States would host the 1994 World Cup. No top-tier professional soccer league. No deep football culture. No real infrastructure for the sport at the elite level. Just a promise — and one very important condition.
Here’s the part of the story most people don’t know.
The FIFA condition that built soccer in the country
When FIFA selected the United States to host the 1994 World Cup back in July 1988, it came with a non-negotiable condition attached. As part of the agreement, the US Soccer Federation formally pledged to create a Division 1 professional soccer league in exchange for FIFA awarding the tournament to the United States. That league became Major League Soccer, and its inaugural season began on April 6, 1996, featuring only ten teams. One of those ten founding clubs was the Los Angeles Galaxy.
This quiet requisite would eventually reshape American sports culture from the ground up.
1994: the year that changed everything
The 1994 World Cup surprised the whole world. The tournament broke all records with an average attendance of 70,000 in the nine venues spread across the country and almost 3.6 million spectators in total according to FIFA — a figure that remains unbeaten to this day. Los Angeles, of course, was at the beating heart of it. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena hosted eight matches that summer, including the final, and drew crowds that stunned even the most optimistic organizers.
Soccer in Los Angeles today
Today, L.A. has three professional soccer clubs:
- 🔵 LA Galaxy (founded 1996 as an MLS charter club, 5-time champion)
- ⚫ LAFC (debuted in 2018, rapidly becoming one of MLS’s most culturally influential clubs)
- 🩷 Angel City FC (debuted in 2022, one of the most celebrated women’s clubs in global football)
Los Angeles is home to millions of passionate soccer fans and world-class venues — a city whose connection to the global game has been grown a lot recently. L.A. was crowned as the number one soccer city in the country by the Sports Business Journal.
And this summer, it gets to host the world again. Here are the games that will happen in Los Angeles:
- 🗓️ June 12 — USA vs Paraguay | Los Angeles Stadium (SoFi)
- 🗓️ June 15 — Iran vs New Zealand | Los Angeles Stadium
- 🗓️ June 18 — Switzerland vs Bosnia-Herzegovina | Los Angeles Stadium
- 🗓️ June 21 — Belgium vs Iran | Los Angeles Stadium
- 🗓️ June 25 — USA vs Türkiye | Los Angeles Stadium
- 🗓️ June 28 & July 2 — Round of 32 Knockout Matches
- 🗓️ July 10 — Quarterfinal
