FIFA World Cup 2026: School Holiday On July 20 In Kerala, Meghalaya, Manipur After Spain Vs Argentina Match

The Spanish team has won the FIFA World Cup after Ferran Torres' goal secured the victory against Lionel Messi's Argentina. The final match was played at night in Indian Standard Time. Following this, many states like Kerala, Meghalaya, and Manipur have declared July 20th as a school holiday for students to let them enjoy the match, which took place at 12:30 am on Monday and ended very late.

FIFA World Cup 2026 School Holiday In Kerala

In a Facebook post, Kerala CM V D Satheesan said, "The football festival that takes place once every four years is drawing to a close. Our passion for football is a model for the entire world. If the match is being held as per the scheduled time, it would be around 2.30 am when the match ends. If it goes into extra time and penalties, it will continue even longer."

Furthermore, he said, "Children have been asking how they will manage to go to school after staying up so late. The government has decided to declare a holiday for all educational institutions in the state, including professional colleges. Let everyone enjoy the Argentina-Spain final with all its excitement."

The holiday was backed by the Education Minister N Samsudheen who encouraged students interest in sports.

Accordingly, schools in Kerala are closed on Monday.

FIFA World Cup School Holiday In Meghalaya

Calling football as "passion and a way of life" in the state, the Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma declared July 20th as school holidays for youngsters to enjoy the last match of the season between Spain and Argentina.

FIFA World Cup School Holiday In Manipur

A similar decision has been taken by the education department in Meghalaya who stated that the governor advised all educational department to remain shut on July 20th so that students do not have to stress and enjoy the final match.

FIFA World Cup 2026: Spain Wins, Argentina Losses

The FIFA World Cup 2026 was the longest global showpiece ever, spanning 104 matches. For Ferran Torres, it felt even longer. He had to wait until the 106th minute of the final match for his moment to arrive, but he delivered, scoring the goal that helped crown Spain as World Cup winners for the second time in their history, as per FIFA's statement.

"The goal is the least of it - all I want right now is to grab that [World] Cup and squeeze it as hard as I can," said Torres to the cameras just after the match had finished. "It's the dream of the 47 million of us who were on the pitch today. We deserved it and we gave it our all."

Overall, FIFA said, this was a head-to-head worthy of the World Cup final, bringing together the champions of Europe and South America, the top two sides in FIFA's world ranking, each of them unbeaten on the road to the final. What followed was a first half controlled by Spain, who produced the first notable attempt through Lamine Yamal after five minutes. Dani Olmo worked the ball to the teenager in space on the right side of the box and he shot low but Martinez got down to block at the near post.

Spain are the first team to be reigning champions of both the men's and women's World Cups at the same time, having won the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023.