The Emirates Cup has effectively been confirmed as part of Arsenal’s 2026 pre-season plans, after the club auctioned box seats at The Arsenal Foundation Celebration Dinner on Thursday.
The Arsenal Foundation held a celebration dinner on Thursday, with the likes of Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, and Viktor Gyokeres in attendance for the charity event.
Part of the event was a silent auction, and @DarrenArsenal1 shared a photo on social media confirming that a 15-seater hospitality box for the 2026 Emirates Cup was one of the items up for auction.
As it stands, Arsenal haven’t confirmed the existence of an Emirates Cup match, likely as they haven’t nailed down which team they’ll play against. But if they’re auctioning off box seats, that effectively confirms the game will take place.
In terms of Arsenal’s other pre-season plans, the same source recently claimed the Gunners will play Girona around July 29th, with plans to hold a game in Dublin a week later, though agreements were still yet to be signed at that point.
Tom Canton of Football.London also confirmed that Arsenal are looking into pre-season plans closer to home, considering matches in Europe including that possible game in Dublin.
It seems there’s no plan to head off to the USA or another continent on this occasion.
A big part of the reason for the more local pre-season this year is the World Cup, which won’t conclude until July 19th. That means there’s only a little over a month until the Premier League kicks off on August 22nd.
Arsenal will hope to be in competitive action even earlier than that, as they still have a good shot at qualifying for the Community Shield a week earlier. The club won’t be able to fully formalise their plans until they know whether or not they’ll be involved in that game.