This summer, Toronto will host six games in the FIFA World Cup. These games are important, but Toronto is no stranger to significant soccer matches. Seventy years ago, Maccabi Tel Aviv played a match against the Ontario All Stars at Maple Leaf Stadium. The stadium was located at the foot of Bathurst Street and was the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team in the International League from 1926 to 1967. The stadium was demolished in 1968.

Maccabi Tel Aviv toured North America in the fall of 1956 and played a Quebec all-star team at the Montreal Baseball Stadium on Oct. 5.  Maccabi won 2-1 before 6,300 spectators. According to the Montreal Gazette, the purpose of the tour “was to pay tribute to the youth of Israel and to help them build a stadium wherein to play their games.” 

The game in Toronto took place on Sunday Oct. 21 (thank you to Avi Hyman for background on the game–Hyman’s Book Store sold tickets to it). It was sponsored by the Zionist Revisionist Organization of Canada and billed as “the most exciting soccer event of the year,” featuring “Israel’s heroic sons–the Maccabi Champion Team of Tel Aviv.”  Maccabi won the game 6-3 before 11,000 fans. The Globe and Mail reported that “Maccabi’s devastating attack in the opening stages completely mystified the All-Stars.”

Profits from the seven-game tour were earmarked to build what became Bloomfield Stadium, named after Montreal brothers Bernard and Louis Bloomfield, which opened in Jaffa in 1962. Maccabi Tel Aviv continues to play at Bloomfield Stadium which has been renovated and expanded to 29,000 seats.

Maccabi Tel Aviv was founded in 1906 in Jaffa as HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo, (First to Zion Jaffa). When Tel Aviv was founded in 1909, the team changed its name to Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team has won 26 league championships and in 2026 won its 25th Israel State Cup. The current owner is Toronto entrepreneur Mitchell Goldhar.

In 2025 in England, Birmingham city officials banned Israeli fans from attending Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Nov. 6 match against Aston Villa due to “security concerns.”  Even without Israeli fans, 700 police officers were deployed to secure the game and six arrests were made.  

Israel is not one of the 48 countries that qualified to play in this World Cup. Iran is, but it is not scheduled to play any of its games in Toronto. Toronto Police are presumably relieved on both counts.