How Fort Worth artist Matt Cliff was chosen to design 2026 FIFA World Cup poster
At a ceremony on Thursday morning at Klyde Warren Park in Downtown Dallas, the Dallas World Cup board in charge of managing the FIFA World Cup involvements in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2026 revealed a promotional poster created by a Fort Worth artist that will be used in advance and throughout the tournament for all events in the Metroplex.
Of the 16 host cities across North America for the 2026 World Cup, the DFW poster reveal was the last, and grandest, behind a large ceremony in Dallas.
The poster was among a widespread competition involving numerous options, but the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee ultimately landed on a piece created by Fort Worth artist and illustrator Matt Cliff.
“My poster printer texted me saying that they were having this competition,” Cliff said. “I had no idea about it. It sounded like an interesting competition and an opportunity to represent North Texas. That was really important to me.”
A native of Benbrook, who graduated from Eastern Hills High School, Cliff has represented Fort Worth in various art pieces, specifically in the music industry for artists such as Post Malone, Leon Bridges, The Eagles and more.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to have my work to open the door and welcome people from all across the world into my backyard,” Cliff told the Star-Telegram. “This is an area of Texas that I’m incredibly proud to be from, and I talk about it as much as I can.”
The poster features a cowboy bicycle kicking across the Dallas skyline, a way Cliff was able to bridge both the aesthetic of Dallas and the culture of Fort Worth in one soccer-themed piece.
“Inevitably, what people need to know about Texas on a worldwide stage is that it’s not just cowboys, mariachi music and Tex-Mex and all of these things that make it wonderful,” Cliff said. “It’s the iconography like the Dallas skyline. It was to help people who aren’t familiar or native to Texas familiarize themselves with what I experience.”
“It’s the merger of being from Fort Worth, we have the stockyards here and you grow up going to high school and college with people who wear cowboy hats and boots. It’s a really diverse community and it’s what makes North Texas so awesome.”
After making most of his living designing concepts for restaurants across the state of Texas and various artists in the music industry, the ability for Cliff and his native North Texas to shine on the global stage will be on full display next summer when the poster will shine throughout the metroplex during the FIFA World Cup.
“I really tried to think of a concept that would bridge Texas and how people feel about it on an international stage,” he said. “It’s been terrific so far, and the team I’ve worked with has been amazing.”
The FIFA World Cup will begin on June 11, 2026 and last through July 19. AT&T Stadium in Arlington will convert into a soccer stadium for the summer and will play host to nine matches during the tournament, the most of any of the 16 venues that will be used, including one of the two semifinal matches.
This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 10:33 AM with the headline "How Fort Worth artist Matt Cliff was chosen to design 2026 FIFA World Cup poster."
