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<\/p>\nMontopoli was in Toronto Stadium on Friday as Canada earned a historic first World Cup point in a 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina. <\/p>\n
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The next night, he was in Vancouver with FIFA president Gianni Infantino for that city\u2019s first game where Australia blanked Turkey 2-0. <\/p>\n
Infantino has been to Vancouver many times, Montopoli said, but hadn\u2019t seen its stadium, BC Place, kitted out for the World Cup. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a stadium, and then there\u2019s a FIFA stadium,\u201d he said. \u201cHe just loved the spectacle of it. You could tell that he was very enamoured with how the stadium looks and feels, and just the reception of the people and people welcoming him.\u201d <\/p>\n
This summer\u2019s tournament is the biggest ever, with 48 teams competing in 104 games across Canada, the United States and Mexico between June 11 and July 19. <\/p>\n
Toronto is staging six games while Vancouver puts on seven. <\/p>\n
The parliamentary budget officer issued a report last month estimated that the federal government will spend $473 million to host the games, with another $593 million coming from other levels of government. <\/p>\n
The report said the average of $82 million per game is roughly in line with what previous host countries have spent. <\/p>\n
For the last 10 years, a large part of Montopoli\u2019s job has been convincing people that bringing the World Cup makes sense for the country, then encouraging them to put in as many resources as possible to make it special. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had high standards here in Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we just tried and set the tone of why people are doing this, what you\u2019re doing it for. In a lot of ways, we were doing it for Canada, we were doing it for football.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tournament isn\u2019t only about the games in Toronto Stadium and BC Place, he added. <\/p>\n
From the beginning, Canada\u2019s bid included plans to bring the energy and excitement of the World Cup to as many parts of the country as possible. <\/p>\n
FIFA took the golden trophy to seven cities across the country in April and May, and is now staging Canada Celebrates, a 40-stop tour that includes viewing parties, live entertainment and soccer-themed activities. <\/p>\n
Toronto and Vancouver are also staging fan festivals, and Montopoli checked out the Vancouver version on Sunday, giving it a glowing review. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so beautiful to see how everybody\u2019s getting along,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s high fiving, everybody\u2019s having a great experience. That\u2019s the people\u2019s World Cup, that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be. And so it\u2019s just beautiful to see every country represented here in Vancouver for a World Cup. Beautiful. It\u2019s about humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montopoli, former secretary general of Canada Soccer, believes the true beauty of hosting the games is yet to come. <\/p>\n
While the tournament will have economic benefits, he sees the lasting impact on soccer across the country being even larger.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll change the sport,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just get more people involved in the sport to make it bigger and better. It\u2019s the world\u2019s game, so why can\u2019t it be that in Canada? That\u2019s what I\u2019ve always felt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soccer already has the highest participation numbers of any sport across the country, and staging these 13 games in Vancouver and Toronto will both drive investment and show kids there\u2019s a pathway to playing at the highest levels, Montopoli said. <\/p>\n
He noted that Toronto previously hosted the U-20 World Cup in 2007 and that tournament\u2019s impact can still be seen today in BMO Field \u2014 the venue that\u2019s been renamed Toronto Stadium for the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s time to rally everything behind the sport, having kids aspire to be a national team athlete, to be a professional footballer,\u201d he said. \u201cIn our country, maybe they\u2019re aspiring to be hockey players or something. But there\u2019s nothing wrong with trying to aspire to be a footballer, and now you can see there are opportunities to do that.\u201d <\/p>\n
As for his own future, Montopoli is less clear. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s spent decades shaping and shepherding soccer across Canada, and hasn\u2019t given much thought to where he might turn his attention when the World Cup concludes. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just grateful for the opportunity to do this for football, do this for Canada, and we\u2019ll see what comes next,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m happy to sit back and watch the next generation do their work. I\u2019d be happy just to do that. That\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montopoli was in Toronto Stadium on Friday as Canada earned a historic first World Cup point in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,561,82],"class_list":["post-741462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741462","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=741462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}