Every Ground that has Hosted the Community Shield

The Community Shield is the annual curtain raiser to the English season, contested by the previous campaign’s Premier League champions and FA Cup winners. Arsenal qualified as champions and Manchester City as FA Cup winners, and the two meet on Sunday, August 16, with a 3pm kick off. The Community Shield odds are already up for the first competitive English fixture of 2026-27.

What has changed this year is the setting. The Shield has been a Wembley fixture for most of the last 50 years, but it has always moved when the national stadium has been unavailable, and 2026 is one of those years.

In this article, we look back at every type of ground that has staged the Shield, from the club stadiums of its early years to the neutral venues that have covered for Wembley.

The years without a fixed home

The Shield began in 1908 as a replacement for the Sheriff of London Charity Shield, and the first match, between Manchester United and Queens Park Rangers, was played at Stamford Bridge. For the next 65 years, the fixture was handed either to a neutral ground or to the home stadium of one of the two clubs, and 18 grounds have hosted it outside the three permanent homes.

Seven of those staged it once and never again: St James’ Park in 1932, Roker Park in 1936, Burnden Park in 1958, Turf Moor in 1960, Portman Road in 1962, Anfield in 1964 and Elland Road in 1969.

Highbury, Filbert Street and Maine Road

Champions regularly took the match to their own ground, which is how Arsenal came to host Manchester City at Highbury in November 1934 and win 4-0 in front of 10,888. Leicester City used Filbert Street in 1971, having qualified as Second Division champions after Arsenal turned the invitation down.

The last club ground to stage the Shield before Wembley took over was Maine Road in August 1973, where Burnley beat the holders, Manchester City.

Wembley became the home in 1974

Ted Croker, then the FA secretary, reshaped the match in 1974 as a meeting of league champions and FA Cup winners at Wembley, played the week before the season began. Leeds United and Liverpool drew 1-1 in front of 67,000, with Liverpool winning 6-5 on penalties.

It was the first Shield to be televised, though it is remembered mainly for Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner being sent off for fighting. Wembley has staged the fixture in almost every year since.

Cardiff covered the Wembley rebuild

When the old Wembley closed for reconstruction, the Shield moved to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and stayed there from 2001 to 2006. Liverpool and Manchester United contested the first of those, which was also the final edition played under the Charity Shield name before the rebrand.

Arsenal appeared four times during the Cardiff run and won twice, beating Liverpool 1-0 in 2002 and Manchester United 3-1 in 2004.

Villa Park and the King Power filled the gaps

Two more relocations followed. Villa Park staged the 2012 match after Wembley was handed the Olympic football final, and Manchester City beat Chelsea 3-2 there for their first Shield since 1972.

Leicester City’s King Power Stadium took the 2022 edition because Wembley was hosting the Women’s European Championship final the following day.

Wherever it lands, the Shield keeps its mid-August slot, which makes it the first English fixture of the season to appear across football betting markets and broadcast schedules.

Cardiff gets it back in 2026

The 2026 match returns to the same Cardiff ground, now the Principality Stadium, for the first time since 2006. Cardiff offers a capacity above 74,000 and a roof that removes the weather from the equation, and it will be the first Shield held outside England in 20 years.

The fixture is expected back at Wembley next season. Cardiff, meanwhile, has a match it last staged when the current national stadium was still a building site.