World Cup stadium workers facing new 1,000-hour job after FIFA sponsorship decision

Workers at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough are now facing a new ‘1,000-hour' job following the venue's final match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The ground was known as the Foxborough Stadium for the duration of the tournament due to FIFA sponsorship rules, which also meant sponsor names on more than 64,000 seats – as well as any other sponsorship signage at the stadium – had to be entirely removed from the venue.

After France's 2-0 quarter-final win over Morocco marked the final World Cup match at the stadium, workers have now been tasked with restoring all sponsorship signage as the venue returns to being Gillette Stadium.

Sponsorships to be restored at Gillette Stadium

Due to FIFA's commercial regulations, Gillette Stadium had to remove all evidence of non-tournament sponsors for World Cup matches, including taping over the “Gillette Stadium” labels on over 64,000 seats at the venue.

Workers have now been tasked with restoring all sponsors at the stadium, meaning these aforementioned stickers will have to be removed from each and every seat.

This job has been estimated to take potentially over 1,000 hours, based on the assumption that removing a sticker from each set takes around one minute.

Despite the scale of such a task, as well as the cost it would have taken to initially carry out the covering of sponsors, revenue generated from hosting seven matches during the 2026 World Cup is expected to far outweigh the cost.

FGG Says: Bizarre FIFA rulings

The FIFA rulings on non-tournament sponsors being covered during the World Cup may make initial sense, but seeing a stadium and its rather obvious branding being covered in black tape makes for rather bizarre viewing.