The 2026 Community Shield match was moved from London's Wembley Stadium to the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media. The reason was the concert schedule of Canadian singer The Weeknd.
According to ESPN, The Weeknd effectively "pushed out" Arsenal and Manchester City from their usual venue. The artist is performing a series of five concerts at the London arena as part of the After Hours Til Dawn tour. It was known as early as March that one of the concerts was scheduled for the same day as the Community Shield.
"The move is particularly notable because Wembley has traditionally been the home of the Community Shield since the reopening of the reconstructed stadium in 2007. Only a few editions have been held elsewhere," noted Hot Freestyle.
At the opening of The Weeknd's concert series, Wembley gathered nearly 90,000 spectators.
Due to the date clash, Arsenal and Manchester City had to travel to Cardiff. The Principality Stadium is a major sports arena in the Welsh capital, where the match took place.
The match ended with a convincing victory for Arsenal — 3:0. Riccardo Calafiori opened the scoring as early as the 23rd second. According to OneFootball, this was the first goal in the first minute of a Community Shield match since 1968 and the fastest goal in the tournament's history.
In the second half, Arsenal scored twice more. Kai Havertz scored in the 28th minute, and Martin Ødegaard in the 48th minute.
As a result, Arsenal won the Community Shield, while Manchester City, for the first time in a long while, had to concede not only the trophy but also the usual venue for the match — Wembley.