The Current - Is Canada ready to become a true World Cup nation?

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Just two months to go until the World Cup begins. Can the Canadian men's team finally breakthrough on home turf? Will Canadian fans show the kind of love for the game seen around the world? Canadian Soccer Hall of Famer Amy Walsh is hopeful. Are you?

This is really shaping up to be an incredibly consequential and potentially fast-moving week in Canadian politics. I'm Jamie Poisson, host of the Daily News podcast Front Burner, and will be all over this story. The Liberals could lock a majority conservative leader Pierre Pollyev is struggling to control an insurrection in his party ranks. Can he remain party leader? Follow Frontburner for all the analysis you need to understand the moment. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. In just two months' time, the men's World Cup of soccer will be underway with matches right here in Canada and the Canadian men playing on home soil.

Yes, the tickets are expensive. Yes, there will be traffic snarls in Toronto and Vancouver. And yes, this tournament is spread out over three countries, Canada, the United States and Mexico and multiple time zones. But the actual games and the party that will surround them are something to get really excited about. The Canadian men will play the game. their first three matches on home turf, will they get their first ever World Cup win? Will Canadians who've often cheered for other countries at World Cups rally behind them? Our intern, Teo La Marchandelle spoke with some fans in Toronto.

I don't want to answer that because I always cheer for England. That's where I was born. But this year with Canada in the play, I feel like I'm going to have to cheer for Canada first. But keep my eye on England. I'll wear both shirts. I'd be happy to see either one of them win. I think my heart would love to see Canada win. Of course, Canada.

I live here. I support Canada, but I was born in Brazil as well. So I have a little bit of a love for Brazil as well, you know. So two teams for me in this World Cup. Oh, Canada, for sure. And anybody who's playing against England. Since I've moved to Canada, I'll probably be cheering for Canada in the first place, but I be following all the African teams.

Well, I mean, I don't have a team of my own because I grew up in India. I thought it's not as big a sport there. And I'm a new Canadian, so I'm going to cheer for Canada. We didn't qualify. So I'm from Ireland. We didn't qualify. I would have been more excited. I have to be cheering for Canada.

Amy Walsh is a former national team member, a member of the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame, a broadcast analyst and host of the Foothie Prime podcast. She is in Montreal. Amy, good morning. Good morning, Matt. How are you? I'm well.

Do you have the World Cup fever yet? I do. I would say that my World Cup fever is unrelenting, whether I'm supporting or meant. or our women. Do people understand, there are all sorts of big sporting events, but do people understand how big of a deal the World Cup coming to Canada is? I don't think they do. We talk over on our podcast on footy prime how soccer in this country is still small, not the game itself, but I think the way that it's represented in that sporting landscape. And I think this is a chance

to give it a bigger footprint to feel the reverberations of soccer and its capabilities on the world stage. And obviously we know the political implications and everything that's happening with this World Cup, which is shared the hosting duties between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Canada gets, some might say, a paltry 13 games split between Vancouver and Toronto. But I think the chance to use this as a tipping point for people to get behind soccer as a sport in this country, not just our men's national team, I think we really have to seize on that. To your point, the game itself is not small. I mean, it's the most played game among kids and you can go to matches across this country in big stadiums and small stadiums and see teams playing. And when the World Cup happens,

you will often see the flags of other nations on the sides of people's cars, right from another house, Italy, Portugal, France, England, sometimes many flags all at the same time. Is your sense that people will get behind the Canadian men's team? What does that team have to do to win the nation over and get the Canadian flag on those cars too? I think it's as simple as performance. I think this team has shown behind the leadership of Jesse Marsh and some professional changes. And Kevin Blue and Peter Gruso is the leadership over at Canada Soccer,

the Federation, how that's modernized and professionalized, that the on-pitch performance is behind it. This was a Cinderella team qualified against all odds in Qatar, scored a goal, but didn't get a point, didn't get out of the group. This is a team right now that has a chance, not to surprise because worldwide people know about Canada now, but they have a chance not to run the group, but to realistically win it and be in control of their destiny almost because they will be starting the World Cup, June 12th versus Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto. They'll be surprised as not Italy for a lot of people who are eager to celebrate them, but a really strong Bosnian team and that Bosnian diaspora in Toronto will be out in full force. So to hear those people coming in, like the audio before I hopped on, there will be people behind Canada and they need to be.

But will they be priced out of attending those games and will Canada in a way be robbed of that Home World Cup feeling? But after that, they move to Vancouver. If they win the group, they have a chance to not only have more rest, seven games between the end of that group stage and then the beginning of the round of 32 and stay there. Stay in camp and get a chance to feel that groundswell. of support, but I really do hope, like, hearing those people say optimistically and I, you know, it would, it would feel good in my heart. My heart would swell to support Canada. That's what we need. I think, but Canada's a unique country with lots of immigrants, lots of people who still feel unique and strong, passionate attachments to the motherland. So now it's about convincing people to

cheer for Canada, and you do that by getting results. And you think they can win this group against Bosnia, Qatar, and Switzerland. I don't know. I think. think they're going to be in tough. I think it's the possibility that they can do it. I think it's a lot more realistic now. I think that it's not Italy. You get off to a good start. You get something from that opening game. The winnable game is that second match versus guitar. If they can get three points there and then still not win the game versus Switzerland, they put themselves in a good position. If they stay on the West Coast and finish second in a group, you might end up facing Mexico. I mean, you look at all the different permutations, there are all kinds of

possibilities, but the worst case scenario would be not getting out of the group at all. You know, I referenced the fact that they participated in the World Cup the second ever one after the team played in 86, so after that long drought, scored a goal, but didn't get a point. So if they get out of the group, that's great. But I think this team is capable of much more, but if they get out of the group by finishing third, they have to go across North America and would play at Foxborough on less rest and then potentially meet some bigger heavyweights in the World Cup. You've been to two Women's World Cups. What is it like to step onto that pitch?

Oh, it's incredible. It's that swell of pride and you're just eager to perform and do the best that you can. And the women, while they've had success at the Olympics, and this is post my career, they waited to win the medals until I retired. but World Cup has been a struggle. But I think the Canadian women continually put this kind of this country on the map. And now that the men are also kind of, you know, swinging and beating heavyweights, like when Jesse Marsh was first hired, the team played in Europe and played the likes of France and the Dutch and went toe to toe with them.

So there's a renewed swagger and I think confidence with the way that both teams are performing. but when you play for Canada, you play the World Cup. I never got a chance. Canada hosted the Women's World Cup in 2015. I didn't get a chance to play in front of a home crowd, but I have lots of friends and ex-teammates that did, and it's an experience that's unlike anything else. So Canada has to deal with that pressure, manage the occasion,

just play the match that's in front of you. It sounds really cliched, but I think that they're really well-equipped to deal with that and embrace it and use it as a galvanized. force to propel them through the tournament. And to your point, hopefully fans who are going to make noise for Canada can actually afford to get into the stadium, right? Yeah, that's the other thing about this tournament.

The bait and switch that's happening now with FIFA, first of all, with pricing people out initially with these exorbitant prices to get in. And now people who bought these category one, quote-unquote, tickets who now have been moved around the stadium, it's left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. So I think there's something that's going to have to be reckoned with from FIFA's standpoint, because you're pricing out the real fans and a lot of the Voyagersers who have ardently supported our men's national team and our women's national team for years and years and years. Many of them were given a chance to go to these matches, whether it's in Toronto or in Vancouver, but it was a lottery system and many did not get in.

And then the chance of this tournament, like the change that it has or the effect that potentially has to make is, is, you know, by planting the seed with this new generation, kids going to games, watching it, feeling that feeling that I described being a player on that pitch, and having that bleed out and that domino effect into the grassroots and connecting that with the professional game in this country. We also have two leagues in the Northern Super League and the CPL who will be playing concurrently during this World Cup.

So can this kind of greater footprint that we hope to make with the game in this country, can that bleed out into support for domestic leagues in Canada? We will talk again closer to the tournament. In the meantime, Amy, thank you very much for this. Thanks so much, Matt. Amy Walsh is a Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame member, broadcast analyst, former member of the national team. She was in Montreal.

This is really shaping up to be an incredibly consequential and potentially fast-moving week in Canadian politics. I'm Jamie Poisson, host of the Daily News Podcast, front burner, and will be all over this story. The Liberals could lock a majority conservative leader Pierre Pahliav is struggling to control an insurrection in his party ranks. Can he remain party leader? Follow Frontburner for all the analysis you need to understand the moment. Simon Cooper has been to every World Cup since 1990.

He's an author and journalist at the Financial Times and the author most recently of World Cup fever, a footballing journey in nine tournaments. He is in Paris. Simon, hello to you. Hi. You wrote, the World Cup is less a soccer tournament than a global ritual. What does the World Cup mean? In the book, I spoke to this vicar in the Church of England, a guy in London, and he said you should see the World Cup as a kind of religious feast, but for the whole world.

So it's like Easter or Aid or Passover, but the whole world participates. And you celebrate your own country, but you also celebrate other countries togetherness. if a Brazilian scores a beautiful goal, everybody talks about it, everybody's happy. It's a time when kind of life pauses and joy takes over. So right now we're talking about the bad stuff, the high ticket prices, Donald Trump. When the tournament starts, it becomes much more about the joy of the soccer. You also write that in some ways it's like an alternative international hierarchy, where the United States isn't also ran, and a country like China doesn't even figure.

That's right. I mean, in what other international hierarchy is Argentina top of the world, or is, you know, Portugal, serious contender and is Brazil the superpower? And that's, you know, part of the pleasure of the World Cup is that the US doesn't really count. You don't have to worry about it historically. And so it's a time when the rest of the world can take a very sporting revenge and where the lowest can be highest. And everyone, I remember in 1990, the whole world was suddenly talking about Cameroon, a country that many people hadn't had. heard of before their soccer team started to win. It's beautiful. What have you learned about what the World Cup means to its host country? Because as we heard, 13 matches will be played here

in Canada. Not enough. It's say some, but some will be here. And so what does it mean to a country like Canada? I mean, typically the host country goes on a kind of journey of self-discovery because you're showing yourself to the whole world, a country like Canada. I mean, most countries don't typically have the world watching them. And you won't quite, this time because Canada and Mexico are sort of junior hosts. They have fewer games. They have, don't have the biggest games. But still, you will be in the eye of the world in periods in June. And so it's a time when the Canada asks, you know, are we the country? We want to be, how does our national team reflect the country, for example, in terms of racial diversity?

What is Canada today? Is our infrastructure good? Can we be proud of what the world is seeing? And that can be a very emotional journey for countries from South Africa to Qatar and Japan. You mentioned Donald Trump. We do have to mention the fact that there are a number of matches in the United States and there are already worries that perhaps some fans, maybe even some players, won't meet the U.S. visa requirements to get into the United States. There are concerns around immigration and ice, perhaps patrolling outside some of these stadiums. How concerned are you about that? Very concerned. I mean, I'm not sure I'll be able to get into the United States. And of course, it's much worse for certain people from particular ethnic groups who live there. If you're a Mexico fan and you want to watch Mexico in a bar in a U.S. city with lots of other people in Mexico shirt, how safe you feel doing that?

I mean, it's a nightmareous situation right now. But I think one thing we're going to see at this World Cup is a conflict between Trump and the anti-Trump U.S. The 11 U.S. host cities are all Democratic voting, even Dallas. and it's a time of particular unpopularity of Donald Trump. So I think we'll see a lot of processes against him. If ICE does show up, there'll be huge amounts of pushbacks from within those cities. You'll see mayors in these cities making statements. We welcome the world.

We welcome immigrants. We're happy people here are supporting Mexico and Colombia and so on. So I think it's going to be the U.S. culture war is going to be in a heightened moment. And is there the possibility? It sounds like a fantasy to some people that this match, these games, this tournament could bring people together at a really divisive time? A World Cup always brings people together. I mean, you know, about the most divided society you can get is the US right now.

I'm not sure we're going to see a huge amount of that being brought together. But a World Cup is a time when societies become societies. Like what in the current world, which TV programmed is everybody watched and talk about at school or at work the next morning? the thing that was normal 30 years ago, you know, when people would have watched cheers or whatever it was. Now the only time people watch the same TV program,

emote about it together, watch in large groups and talk about it the next day, is a World Cup soccer match. In a country like England or the Netherlands, you get a majority of the population watching that big game. I mean, it's an incredibly uniting effect. In my book, Soconomics, we show it actually reduces suicides

in countries that participate, partly because it draws lonely people more into the national community. Last question. Gary Lineker, famous British footballer, once said that football is a simple game. 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and in the end, Germany wins. Who is the favorite, do you think? Not Germany. Not Germany.

Linnaker's statement was great, but it's now out of date. I think Spain is the strongest team, followed perhaps by England, France, Argentina, but World Cups are so random. You know, the big games decided by one goal, the ball that comes out off the post. instead of going in off the post. There's a huge amounts of luck. That's part of the joy. So all my predictions of who wins are wrong.

Spain is the strongest team. Who's going to win? I have no idea. As a journalist, of course, you have to remain impartial and don't put your thumb on the scale. But who, I mean, in your heart of hearts, who are you cheering for? I'm not impartial at all. I grew up in the Netherlands.

I'm not Dutch, but I support Holland. I really hope they win. Simon, good to talk to you, and I hope we have the chance to talk again as the tournament gets closer. Thank you very much. Thank you. Simon Cooper is the author.

of a number of books about soccer, including most recently World Cup fever, a footballing journey in nine tournaments. He was in Paris. You've been listening to the current podcast. My name's Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca.