Canadian football ready for World Cup coming out party
Key takeaways
- Already the largest participatory sport in Canada with nearly one million registered players, the 2026 World Cup is set to deliver another jolt of momentum to the country’s rapidly emerging football scene.
- Canada will host 13 matches — six in Toronto, seven in Vancouver — with Canada also facing Qatar and Switzerland in Group B.
- In two previous appearances at the World Cup — the 1986 finals in Mexico and the 2022 tournament in Qatar — Canada has compiled a perfect record of futility: played six and lost six.
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
Add ARY News on Google AAResize Exactly 150 years after Carlton Cricket Club and Toronto Lacrosse Club took part in the first recorded organised football match in Canada in 1876, Canadian soccer is finally ready for its coming out party.
When Canada faces Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 12 in the team’s first ever World Cup match on home soil, it will be the latest stop on a decades-long journey of development that has seen football gain a solid foothold in a sporting landscape dominated by ice hockey.
Already the largest participatory sport in Canada with nearly one million registered players, the 2026 World Cup is set to deliver another jolt of momentum to the country’s rapidly emerging football scene.