Philadelphia unveils its official 2026 World Cup poster, with help from the Flower Show

The design is full of city landmarks and soccer icons. Each of the World Cup's 16 host cities will have its own poster, and Philadelphia was the first to announce its version.

Nick McClintock stands next to a floral version of his winning design for Philadelphia's 2026 World Cup poster.Read moreJose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published March 5, 2025, 3:27 p.m. ET

The unveiling of an official poster for a World Cup might seem like not that big of a deal. But in fact, World Cup posters have been a big deal for a long time.

Many of them have been recognized as real artwork, not just commercial prints. England’s lion in 1966, Spain’s Joan Miró-designed print in 1982, and France’s abstract stadium in 1998 remain iconic to this day.

Perhaps the most famous of all seems at first to be one of the simplest: Mexico’s modernist soccer ball in 1970. But the bright colors and vivid font make it instantly recognizable, with a little extra sheen from Pelé‘s star-studded Brazil winning that year.

And though the present often feels like it isn’t as good as the past, FIFA’s designers did a great job in 2023 with posters for that year’s women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

With next year’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico now 15 months away, the time has come to unveil that tournament’s official posters. On Wednesday, Philadelphia became the first of the 16 host cities to publish its artwork, using the Flower Show as the setting for a launch event. (The city was even allowed to jump the line from FIFA’s initial plan because of the big stage.)

The poster is mainly blue, with white overlays of a soccer field’s boundaries and three soccer balls on flying yellow tails. There are lots of details with famous Philadelphia landmarks, from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell to the Chinatown Arch, Boathouse Row, the Art Museum, and Center City skyscrapers.

The curved roof of the Convention Center’s entry hall, which dates back to the old Reading Terminal, is neatly lined up with the arc on the outside of a soccer field’s 18-yard box. City Hall is positioned in the field’s center circle, an allusion to the building’s central location in the city.

There are mocked-up stands with fans, a rendering of the stripes of the American flag, a heart to allude to Brotherly Love, and the edges of a keystone at a corner. It’s a lot, but it all works pretty well together. The design was pretty well-received on social media, especially considering FIFA’s unpopularity among many fans.

The other host cities’ posters will be published over the next few weeks.

Philadelphia’s local organizing committee held an open contest for the poster design and received more than 400 submissions from across Pennsylvania. That number was cut to 10, and a judging panel led by Pennsylvania first lady Lori Shapiro and City of Philadelphia chief cultural officer Val Gay picked the top three.

The finalists were then sent to FIFA for the governing body’s final approval.

It so happened that FIFA’s choice was a Pittsburgh-based artist, Nick McClintock. But Philadelphia’s host city executive Meg Kane was OK with that — for two reasons. One is that she wanted an open competition, while some host cities commissioned artists directly.

“It just made sense to branch out, to make sure that we were being as inclusive as possible, in terms of the artistic opportunity that this offered,” Kane said. “We were overwhelmed by the response [from] the artistic community, and we are so grateful to so many of the artists that helped guide us to make sure that we did it right.”

The other was to reinforce the idea that the World Cup coming here isn’t just a Philadelphia thing. Fans will stay at hotels in the suburbs, Atlantic City’s Stockton University is on the list of potential team base camp sites, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Pittsburgh joins that list in the future.

“We enjoyed support for the bid from [former] Gov. [Tom] Wolf; we continue to enjoy support as a host city from Gov. Shapiro and the legislature, and for that, we are incredibly grateful,” Kane said. “Yes, Philadelphia is the host city, but this is a 40-day event that is coming to the commonwealth.”

McClintock, 37, admitted that he’s only a casual soccer fan. But when he saw an advertisement for the contest, he jumped in right away.

“I just knew that this was a big deal when I realized it was for the FIFA World Cup, and I was like I had to give it a go,” he said, standing next to not just a print of his poster but a rendition of it in flowers. Valley Forge Flowers created the floral version, and preserved it in a way so that local organizers can take the display to events over the next 15 months.

“This is the largest format my art’s ever been displayed in, and I think the largest audience it will have ever had,” McClintock said. “I’m still trying to process it all, but very happy and excited for the adventure.”

His bet is probably a safe one, considering that an estimated 1.5 billion people watched the last men’s World Cup final in 2022. That’s a pretty big audience for any artist, not just one who stood on a local stage Wednesday and will soon be on a global one forever.