Qualicum Beach council declines to support community soccer event<\/p>\n
Published 4:30 pm Saturday, February 7, 2026<\/p>\n
A local collaboration involving the Oceanside Football Club, local businesses, organizations and the Qualicum Beach Collective want to stage Oceanside Community Cup in conjunction with the FIFA World Cup 26.<\/p>\n
The group had asked the Town of Qualicum Beach to be a partner and help with an application to the 2026 Community Event Support Fund, which provides free public community events that celebrate the unifying power of sport, foster community pride, cultural expression and local economic activity during the World Cup period.<\/p>\n
The proposed community event, slated for June 13 at the Qualicum Beach Community Park behind the Civic Centre, would be a free, inclusive family-friendly, community-wide celebration that will draw resident of all ages and background together through a soccer tournament.<\/p>\n
Focused on sportsmanship, inclusion, team spirit and fun, the event will also have World Cup match viewing, cultural performances, family activities, music, dance and other events.<\/p>\n
The OFC will be tasked to deliver the soccer component of the community cup. It has more than 600 members aged three to 75 years old.<\/p>\n
The Oceanside Community Cup proposal was presented at council meeting on Jan. 21 but staff recommended council not to be a co-applicant for the 2026 Community Event Support Fund.<\/p>\n
Given the short lead time and reporting requirements, staff indicated their workload is now at maximum capacity given the number of priorities council have demanded for 2026 and does not have the manpower fully support the request.<\/p>\n
Coun. Jean Young urged council to support the event. She understands staff\u2019s concerns and capacities but believes the event \u201crepresents a strong strategic opportunity for Qualicum Beach. This event is exactly what the province designed the 2026 Community Event Support Fund to support.\u201d<\/p>\n
With up to $50,000 in provincial funding available, the town will not have to contribute money to help with the event, said Young.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe staff capacity concerns can be addressed through clear boundaries on the town\u2019s role, use of a contracted event coordinator, and reliance on community partners, all of which are already built into the plan,\u201d said Young. \u201cDeclining this would mean turning away provincial funding and a strong community-led opportunity that aligns well with our values.\u201d<\/p>\n
CAO Lou Varela said that they \u201ccertainly understand the potential excitement around such an event, which wouldn\u2019t occur all the time. But I think council also has to consider we have four other events in June that also take staff time. We have the Family Day, the Show N\u2019Shine, the triathlon and grad parade.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coun. Anne Skipsey suggested making the request to the Regional District of Nanaimo, which is more involved in recreational activities and has more staff members.<\/p>\n
Coun. Scott Harrison would like to see the event held and would like to find out if there is something they can take off the staff work list this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too good of an opportunity to pass up,\u201d said Harrison.<\/p>\n
Mayor Teunis Westbroek said they were aware this event was going to happen four to five years ago as the FIFA World Cup has already set the schedule in advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know this was going to happen,\u201d said Westbroek. \u201cTo come in at the last moment at the end of December to say, \u2018Well, you know, if you want to put up an event, will give it to you.\u2019 That\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Westbroek said he doesn\u2019t favour last-minute applications because they have a \u201chuge impact on all of our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The motion to support the event failed with Young and Harrison the only two members voting in favour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qualicum Beach council declines to support community soccer event Published 4:30 pm Saturday, February 7, 2026 A local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-460725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}