EA has locked in the FC 26 promo schedule for the rest of the cycle, and there are seven more campaigns to clear before the focus shifts to FC 27. Path to Glory opens the Festival of Football on June 5, 2026, and the run wraps with Pre-Season in late August. The first five promos are officially confirmed; FUTTIES and Pre-Season are penciled in on EA's usual late-cycle pattern. Here's the full FC 26 promo schedule, what each campaign brings, and the dates that matter for coin planning.
FC 26 promo schedule at a glance
Every promo from Path to Glory through Pre-Season, with start dates for both team drops where applicable:
Promo | Team 1 start | Team 2 start | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Path to Glory | June 5 | June 12 | Confirmed |
Greats of the Game | June 19 | n/a | Confirmed |
Glory Hunters | June 26 | July 3 | Confirmed |
Phenoms | July 10 | n/a | Confirmed |
Summer Stars | July 17 | n/a | Confirmed |
FUTTIES | July 24 | n/a | Expected |
Pre-Season | August 21 | n/a | Expected |
Every confirmed promo lands on the standard Friday slot of 6 PM BST / 10 AM PT. FUTTIES and Pre-Season are based on the pattern EA has followed since FIFA 23, but the exact dates can shift by a week if the World Cup mode timeline extends.
What each FC 26 promo brings
The Festival of Football umbrella runs from Path to Glory through Summer Stars, so the next five weeks of promo content all tie back into the World Cup theme EA built Season 8 around.
Path to Glory opens the campaign on June 5. The cards follow the live-upgrade template: each item tracks a national team's progress and rerates as that nation wins, which is the same mechanic that powered Road to the Final earlier in the cycle. The live-upgrade math behaved well in Road to the Final, and the same logic applies here: pick cards from teams with a deep international fixture list, not the ones with a single group game.
Greats of the Game drops as a one-week event on June 19 and is the headline ICON release of the second half of the cycle. The promo formally adds Mario Kempes and Rivellino as new base ICONs, both of which were tipped earlier in the FC 27 ICON leaks as the two names confirmed to carry over from the current cycle.
Glory Hunters is the surprise on the calendar. The two-team promo runs June 26 and July 3, and EA's own description specifies "PlayStyle customisation to selected Player Items," the first time a regular weekly promo has shipped that mechanic outside Season Pass final rewards. Expect the PS+ flexibility to push specific cards into the meta even if their base stats sit a tier below TOTS.
Phenoms on July 10 is the youth-and-debutant promo. Historically these have been hit-or-miss because the player pool leans on academy prospects without strong base cards, but the timing alongside the international tournament gives EA cover to push higher OVRs than usual.
Summer Stars on July 17 is the official Festival of Football finale. The promo description leans on "biggest moments and greatest performers," which historically translates to either retro-themed reissues or a TOTS-tier summary release. Either way, this is the last regular promo before the FUTTIES window opens.
If you're stocking coins for the Path to Glory chase or the Greats of the Game ICON SBCs, the front half of the calendar carries most of the spend pressure. You can pick up FC 26 coins for PS5 before Path to Glory Team 2 rotates on June 12.
FUTTIES and Pre-Season: what to expect
FUTTIES is the staple closing campaign of every EA FC cycle. The promo runs five weeks of player vote-ins, includes the 99 OVR endgame tier that defines the late meta, and historically introduces hundreds of new cards across SBCs, Objectives, and packs. The July 24 date matches the FUTTIES start in FIFA 22, 23, 24, and 25, so confidence on the slot is high even though EA has not officially confirmed it. Expect the first week to ship a player vote alongside several auto-included headliners.
Pre-Season is the August 21 capper and is fundamentally a fodder pipeline for FC 27. The Objectives and SBCs that drop in this window pay out FC 27 starter packs, which are claimable on launch day in late September. They're not big-value packs individually, but stacking the full Pre-Season grind has historically been worth around 50k–100k of FC 27 launch-day market value, depending on which packs hit. The campaign is light on chase cards, heavy on weekly milestone Objectives.
Strategy notes for the back half of FC 26
Three things to plan around if you're trying to finish the cycle with a strong final squad:
Front-load coin spend on Path to Glory. The live-upgrade model rewards holding the card through the entire international window, which is six weeks of upgrades for the Team 1 entries. The Team 2 drops on June 12 get the same upgrade window minus one week.
Save fodder for Greats of the Game. Kempes and Rivellino are likely to ship as 95+ ICON SBCs, and the Festival of Football fodder pipeline that opened with Season 8 is meant to feed these specific SBCs. Don't burn 86s on Path to Glory submissions if you're chasing the ICON drop.
Treat Glory Hunters as a meta event. The PS+ customisation is the most disruptive late-cycle mechanic EA has shipped, and the cards that benefit most are squad-defining single-player picks rather than five-player TOTS waves.
For the FOF SBCs and the Greats of the Game ICON chases that anchor the next four weeks, the spend cadence runs into hundreds of thousands per cycle. The FC Pro Live promo notes from earlier in the year covered the same "save for the spike weeks" logic, and it applies harder now than it did then.
FAQ
What is the next FC 26 promo?
Path to Glory Team 1 on June 5, 2026, opening the Festival of Football. Path to Glory Team 2 follows on June 12.
When does FUTTIES start in FC 26?
EA has not officially confirmed the date, but the expected start is Friday, July 24, 2026, in line with every FUTTIES launch since FIFA 22.
What time do FC 26 promos release?
All confirmed promos go live at 6 PM BST / 10 AM PT on Friday, which is EA's standard weekly drop slot.
What is the last FC 26 promo before FC 27?
Pre-Season, expected on August 21, 2026. It's the fodder-and-Objective campaign that hands out FC 27 starter packs, not a chase-card event.
Is Pre-Season worth grinding?
Yes, but for the FC 27 carry-over packs rather than the FC 26 cards. Historical returns sit around 50k–100k of launch-day market value on FC 27 day one.
Final word
The FC 26 promo schedule from June 5 through August 21 covers seven campaigns, three of them carrying serious meta weight (Path to Glory, Greats of the Game, FUTTIES). Plan coin spend around those three and treat Glory Hunters as a wildcard worth pivoting toward if the PS+ customisation lands on a meta-relevant card.
If you're building the war chest for the Festival of Football SBCs or the Greats of the Game ICONs, visit FUTCOIN to grab FC 26 coins before Path to Glory Team 2 lands on June 12.
