2018 England

When most people think of Canada and sports, the first thing that comes to mind is Ice hockey. But, Canada is an up and coming football nation and football (or soccer as it is called there) is growing in popularity. With Toronto FC, the Vancouver Whitecaps and L’impact du Montréal (Montreal Impact), a ninth ranked Women’s national team and a fifty-eighth ranked Men’s team Canadian soccer fans have lots of regional pride, soccer rivalries and a great reason to continue to support the sport and the teams in their country Recently, rumours have been coming up that the Canadian Soccer Association would place a bid for the 2018 World Cup. This now seems less likely due to Canada’s failure to be chosen to host the next Women’s world cup. But, let’s examine a possible bid anyways….

Canada is a diverse and multicultural nation with may sites and attractions to see, a very well developed infrastructure, welcoming population, a wealthy government and a healthy track record when it comes to hosting international sporting events (i.e. 2007 FIFA U20 World cup, numerous Olympic games). These factors would help Canada’s cause but there is one missing element that makes all the difference. lack of suitable stadiums. There’s the Rogers Centre and BMO field in Toronto, Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton and Olympic stadium in Montreal but that’s not enough stadiums and some of the few that were just mentioned will need some work done to them before they can host a World Cup match. Luckily, Their are some new stadium projects in the works though and new stadiums could always be built.

The verdict? If FIFA’s rotation policy was still in effect, Canada would have a god chance of hosting the world cup in 2018 but with the end of the policy, it doesn’t look likely that Canada will be hosting the World Cup in 2018. but, only time will tell.