By “Mr. B for Ball”
The FIFA World Cup kicks off next week and the world is waiting with bated breath to see how it will all unfold. The hype associated with tournaments of this nature is playing out in full in countries with strong soccer traditions. Of the three hosts—Canada, Mexico and the United States—only Mexico is truly a soccer-playing nation in the purest form of that expression and therefore the hype there is massive!
The US has however improved a lot since the USA ’94 World Cup tournament and the country’s national team has posted some impressive results. Many soccer fans will recall that it famously created a remarkable upset by reaching the quarter-final of the 2022 edition. Canada on the other hand is a country enamored with ice hockey and is still trying to find its space in the world of soccer.
The organizers of this World Cup are hoping to help Canada achieve this growth and the increasing popularity of the game in schools, parks, community centers and stadiums buoy the hopes of Peter Augruso, President of Canada Soccer (as the Canadian Soccer Federation is known here), that it is just a matter of time before the level of Canadian soccer catches up with the rest of the world.
How much is this going to cost the taxpayer? Well, Canada is reportedly spending USD1 billion to co-host this tournament and this expenditure has its fair share of critics. Another area of criticism is the cost of match tickets, not only in Canada, but in the US as well. Many potential spectators are aghast as to how they’re expected to spend so much on a single match ticket. FIFA’s defense (that it relied on the cost of entertainment in the US to fix the cost of tickets) has only served to infuriate fans, with even President Donald Trump of the US publicly saying that he won’t buy tickets at such an exorbitant cost!
Some Canadians also wonder if the two host cities—Toronto and Vancouver—will benefit from hosting the tournament. Clearly, there will be some benefit, especially from tourism, given the fact that not many people are likely to be heading to the neighboring United States as confirmed by some US networks. They have cited very low occupancy bookings across US hotels for this particular tournament, occasioned by what many attribute to the foreign policy of President Trump and his strong anti-immigration policy at home, with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency as its arrowhead.
From the Mexican side of things, there are those who believe that the high-profile anti-narcotics operations by the Mexican authorities and the fight back by well-heeled criminal networks, some of which have been sufficiently well-organized enough to challenge state authority and cause grave security breaches, could inhibit tourism around the World Cup. It is heartwarming however to note that Mexican authorities have assured in-coming fans and visitors of their safety. The net effect of these is that more tourists are likely to prefer heading to Canada, than would go to the US or Mexico.
That said, soccer is more popular in Mexico, the US and Canada in that order. How this tournament will contribute to improving soccer in Canada especially, will only be assessed after the competition. However, one positive thing going for the country is its focus on the next generation—and the 2026 FIFA World Cup is likely going to be popularizing the game among young Canadians to help drive that vision.
The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute affirms that soccer is the sport of choice among young people from ages 5-17 years. It is not surprising therefore that the expectation of Canada Soccer is that these youths—male and female— will likely follow the trajectory of no other than their country’s national soccer coach, Jesse Marsch, whose soccer career was influenced by the hosting of the USA ’94 FIFA World Cup by the United States. He grew up in an environment positively influenced by that edition of the competition and went from playing soccer in college to becoming a professional player in the MLS. Now Marsch is coaching the Canadian National Soccer team as the country co-hosts the world.
Despite being one of the co-hosts and in spite of playing all its group games on home soil (between the cities of Toronto and Vancouver) as well as occupying the 26th spot on current FIFA rankings, Canada is not among the favorites that are expected to excel at this World Cup. Nonetheless, just a few days ago, the country expectedly beat Uzbekistan (ranked 54th in FIFA ranking) 2-0 in one of its warm-up games, scoring both goals in the second half, in a match watched by 46,164 home fans.
The second half goals, the last of which was scored quite late in the game, suggest a Canadian team that has a strong mental discipline, while the capacity stadium is a pointer to the likelihood of sold-out seats at least for the home team’s matches. Both are good indicators indeed and suggest that the Canadian national soccer team will put up a spirited fight in the FIFA 2026 World Cup. It will therefore be foolhardy to underestimate the determination of the team to excel and the capacity of Canada Soccer to play its part towards hosting an exceptional Mundial.
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