Estadio Centenario: work will start in April 2027, and the stadium's governance is changing

On 14 October 2026, the president of CAFO, Gonzalo Trabal, told the newspaper El País that renovation work on the Estadio Centenario would begin “from April 2027”. It is the first start date ever announced for the Montevideo ground that is due to host the centenary match.

What was announced

• Work starts from April 2027, according to Gonzalo Trabal, president of CAFO.
• Target capacity: 63,000 seats.
• CAFO (Comision Administradora del Field Oficial), which runs the stadium, is to become a civil association with legal personality, instead of operating through agreements between institutions.
• It brings together the AUF, which owns the stadium itself, and the Montevideo city council, which owns the land.
• The change was approved unanimously by the Junta Departamental of Montevideo. It still has to be ratified by Parliament, which is expected before the end of 2026.
• The stated aim is to let CAFO run the renovation itself, rather than the city council or the AUF, so the project can move faster than state procedures allow.

Also named in the file are Fernando Lorenzo, coordinator of the 2030 World Cup commission, and Marcelo Roux, director of Public Spaces at Montevideo city council.

Funding is still the open question

The funding is not secured. El País lists FIFA, Conmebol and entertainment promoters among the possible routes, with no commitment announced by any of them.

In September 2026, at a meeting bringing together regional football leaders, heads of state and FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Uruguay’s foreign minister Mario Lubetkin set out the government line: “we are not going to spend a coin, a peso, a dollar, on the World Cup. The money has to be found, and it will be found.”

For the record, in June 2026 the cost of the renovation was put at $120 million by the Uruguayan government, with president Yamandú Orsi looking for private investors.

What changes, and what does not

Until this announcement, no start date had been set for the Centenario, which made it the most uncertain venue of the tournament. Breaking ground in April 2027 would leave a little over three years before the World Cup, a simple subtraction between the two dates.

Three unknowns remain, however, and they matter as much as the date:

• No contractor has been announced.
• No closure period for the stadium has been made public.
• No delivery date has been given.

Until the funding is in place and Parliament has ratified CAFO’s new status, April 2027 remains an intention stated by the commission’s president, not a contractual schedule. We will update this page as soon as a step is cleared.