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Watch: Has Canada delivered as a World Cup Host?
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Watch: Has Canada delivered as a World Cup Host?
Canada has sometimes been referred to as the “forgotten host” of this World Cup, but for the men’s national team and its supporters, the performance during the tournament will be an unforgettable high-water mark.
Led by brash American coach Jesse Marsch, the team surprised many by fighting into the round of 16 – the furthest they’ve ever gone in the tournament – before being defeated by Morocco.
Canada’s underdog run – from claiming their first World Cup point, their first win, and finally a knockout-stage victory as well – is one for the history books.
They “shocked everyone” by making it as far they did, fan Matt Lorincz told the BBC in Calgary.
While football – or soccer – is Canada’s most-played sport, its commercial success is overshadowed by the nation’s love affair with ice hockey and the popularity of major-league baseball and basketball franchises.
But there’s hope that could change after this tournament.
“Most people you talk to watch, like, hockey or other sports, right? There’s not a lot of – or as many – soccer fans in Canada. So hopefully there may be a few more of those,” said Lorincz.
Matt Lorincz hopes the tournament will grow soccer fandom in Canada
Matt Lorincz hopes the tournament will grow soccer fandom in Canada
For a few weeks in June and July, the country has embraced its time on one of sport’s biggest stages, while hosting the tournament alongside the US and Mexico.
On Tuesday, that hosting responsibility came to a close with a final match in Vancouver – during which Switzerland defeated Colombia in the round of 16.
In Toronto, earlier in the tournament, the sound of matches filtered out onto the streets from local bars, and fans held joyous and colourful marches to Toronto Stadium through the downtown area.
On the west coast, Canada trounced Qatar 6-0 during a match in Vancouver. The victory was marred only when star midfielder Ismaël Koné was stretchered off the pitch with a broken leg after going down from a hard tackle.
‘The country and the world are watching’
Prime Minister Mark Carney is an avid sports fan who owns what seems like a jersey for every occasion. He is, so far, the only leader of the three North American host nations to attend stadium games, and he has embraced the opportunity to showcase his country during the world’s most-watched sporting event.
After the win against Qatar, Carney gave the team a pep talk in the Vancouver stadium locker room.
“You showed a level of character that some people never achieve in their life,” Carney said. “And you showed it when a good part of the country and the world is watching.”
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney kisses the World Cup trophy
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney kisses the World Cup trophy
Sports minister Adam van Koeverden told the BBC that Canada had been “growing up a little bit as a middle power, and the opportunity to host the world for the biggest event of the year this year has been a sincere privilege that we have not taken lightly”.
The premise of the original bid for a shared World Cup “was one continent, three countries” said John Kristick, a sports marketing executive with Playfly Sports Consulting, who served as the executive director of the United Bid Committee.
Kristick felt the tournament so far had gone well but had lost the essence of a truly united bid along the way.
“I think it’s probably been harder for Canada and Mexico to break through as hosts. I think that the US have taken more of that limelight,” he said, pointing to the high-profile politics of the Trump administration and the fact the US was hosting the lion’s share of games.
And while Canada has sometimes got lost in the shuffle in the massive tournament, Kristick said “every Canadian knows Canada is hosting it, and I think there’s been a great deal of national pride”.
Toronto and Vancouver hosted a total of 13 matches of the tournament’s 104.
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Hosting boosts businesses – despite costs to country
Ian Tostenson, head of the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association, described being in a host city as a crash course in “the enormity of the World Cup”.
The event pulled people in with the excitement around matches, and gave local businesses a significant boost, Tostenson said, adding that alcohol sales were up roughly 5% on last year.
“It raised the spirits of the entire province. I think the whole conversation [for the] last four weeks had been about soccer,” he told the BBC.
Canada is facing some economic doldrums, Tostenson said, but “you learn that if you give people a real reason to spend their money and give them value, they’ll spend it”.
Still, Canada’s decision to co-host has come with criticism – especially around the costs.
Taxpayers paid an estimated C$1.1bn ($774m; £578m) to get the country World Cup ready – with Toronto alone shelling out an estimated C$380m.
City Councillor Josh Matlow did not think the price tag made sense given strained municipal finances.
“I don’t think that hosting the games made the city’s situation any better,” he said.
Van Koeverden, the sports minister, countered that the spending was “prudent” and said dollars flowed back into the economy.
“Full stadiums, full parks, full restaurants, and full hotels is a nice problem to have in 2026,” he said.
For their part, visitors have spoken warmly of their time in the cities of the “forgotten” host country.
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez said Toronto’s stadium – the smallest of all the World Cup stadiums, featuring temporary seating built to accommodate the crowds – reminded him of the “old-fashioned Premier League grounds”.
Speaking after Portugal’s win against Croatia, Martinez called the overall atmosphere “an incredible spectacle for football”.
Speaking while matches were taking place in Toronto, Gudmund Agotnes, from Norway, said he was attending three games in the city, noting that “we were lucky with the draw”.
Agotnes called the stadium experience “pretty cool”, thanks to seats that offered a great “bird’s eye view” of both the play on the pitch and the city’s skyline.
Millions tuned in for Canada’s biggest ever match
More than a million fans attended the opening 16 games at the World Cup in all three host countries, Fifa said last month. At the time, Fifa also said the tournament was on course to eclipse an all-time cumulative attendance record of 3.5 million in 1994 at the end of the group stage – although given the expanded format of this year’s tournament, these attendance figures are not unexpected.
Canadian viewership of the match against Morocco on 4 July peaked at 11.7 million unique viewers, and was the biggest non-final World Cup figure on record, host broadcaster Bell Media said.
In comparison, 9.8 million Canadians overall tuned into last October’s opening of the National Hockey League (NHL) season.
Bell Media said the round-of-32 matches had an average Canadian audience of 1.9 million viewers. Meanwhile, the popular programme Hockey Night in Canada, which shows NHL games, averages an estimated 1.2 million viewers per broadcast.
Fan Zeileen Reardon praises the ability of the sport to unite people
Fan Zeileen Reardon praises the ability of the sport to unite people
Canada Soccer hopes to build on the buzz
Canada, while a first-time World Cup host, does have a soccer culture.
It has two clubs who compete in the Major League Soccer (MLS) competition: the Vancouver Whitecaps, established in 1973, and Toronto FC, founded 32 years later.
But the country has struggled to translate a recreational league passion into consistent high performance, in particular with the men’s national team. Meanwhile, the women’s team is currently ranked ninth globally by Fifa.
This tournament has helped to spur massive financial improvements to Canada Soccer, the official national governing body for the sport. The body launched a fundraiser before the tournament that recently met its C$25m target months ahead of schedule.
That windfall could deepen the roots of the game domestically, Canada Soccer says, through more funding for youth participation, coaching development, and support for senior and youth national teams.
Now, the hope is the governing body can build on the buzz and fandom around the team, as well as longer-term projects such as the establishment of a national training centre.
Meanwhile, fans of the men’s national team, nicknamed Les Rouges, are just savouring the experience of a strong tournament performance.
“It brought a lot of people together in a very kind of segregated world that we’re living in,” said Zeileen Reardon, who spoke while watching the team play Morocco in a bar in Calgary.
“So, I think it actually showed the world that we can come together, even for a game,” she added.
Additional reporting by Nadine Yousif and Eloise Alanna
