Soccer in Canada | Canada Hosting the 2026 World Cup

[elly63]

[Tg11]

2026 Canada, USA and Mexico should get automatic bids seeing as how all 3 of us countries are hosting it together. But even if we don't get an automatic spot and we have to take part in qualifying and then we don't qualify, we would still qualify regardless being hosts. Just like in 2010 for example, South Africa was a host. Took part in qualifying for 2010 and they didn't qualify but still qualified regardless because they were hosts.

But either way us, USA and Mexico if we are all hosts, we should not even have to take part in qualifying for the 2026 cycle.

But then again for CONCACAF for 2026, CONCACAF gets 6 spots (6 teams in)

Since it is a 48 team World Cup

Europe gets 16 teams
Africa gets 9 teams
Asia gets 8 teams
South America gets 6 teams
Oceania they get 1 team
And the final 2 spots are determined by inter confederation playoffs

For 2026

[Tg11]

Canada for our January 30th home game, I say it should be in Hamilton or Toronto but if it is in Hamilton, it should be at Tim Hortons Field but if it is in Toronto, it should be at Rogers Centre. It isn't like Toronto hasn't hosted soccer games inside Rogers Centre before because they have. They can easily convert their baseball stadium into a soccer stadium pretty easily.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Tg11

Canada for our January 30th home game, I say it should be in Hamilton or Toronto but if it is in Hamilton, it should be at Tim Hortons Field but if it is in Toronto, it should be at Rogers Centre. It isn't like Toronto hasn't hosted soccer games inside Rogers Centre before because they have. They can easily convert their baseball stadium into a soccer stadium pretty easily.

Can it really be easily converted now?

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Can it really be easily converted now?

Really doubt it.

[VanCanMan]

I can't believe some of the things I'm reading on here.

Should Edmonton have hosted those two matches? Yes, of course. People on this forum are making more of a stink about this than Mexico and Costa Rica.

Weather
Football's played in all types of weather around the world. It's Canada in November. What do people expect, 30 degrees?

Injuries
Playing in an extremely smoggy city, at altitude, when it's 30 + degrees isn't ideal for ones health. Herdman consulted the players before deciding on Edmonton. They were all for it.

Pitch
Yes, Commonwealth's pitch isn't ideal, but have a look at what Canada's forced to play on in Panama in a few months. Have a look at the potato field in Jamaica. Have a look at the swamps in Honduras and El Salvador.

Summary
For decades, Canada's been forced to play in climates that don't suit us. Our players have had batteries and bags of piss thrown at them during matches. They've been kept awake with all night parties with concert-sized amps and fire alarms. They've been denied training time.

This isn't Europe, it's CONCACRAP. This is never going to change, since FIFA don't really give a toss what goes on here. What are we supposed to do? Keep bending over backwards for our delicate visitors?

It's about time we took advantage of our climate.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by VanCanMan

It's about time we took advantage of our climate. I

Earlier, I made a post denigrating another poster before I reconsidered and deleted it. Having said that, I went to Twitter and saw a whole bunch of negative posts about Edmonton and the game and I know who they were. They were the same people who brought the rating up 700k from the Costa Rica game, in other words like some of the posts in this thread they weren't the diehard fans. How do I know that, almost all of them were devoid of some of the known facts about the CMNT, they just figured they'd throw their 2 cents in without having a clue (the whole raison d'etre of the Internet I suppose)

[elly63]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Really doubt it.

Can't see it (SkyDome). I think even Duane Rollins longtime CMNT fan pundit was trolling for a laugh re: Montreal (below). The cost would be unreal and totally not worth it as the turf would be awful if it has nothing to bed to (as has happened before).

I know the preference is BMO but my thought would be Hamilton to minimize BMO turf damage but Wheeler has some ins there, so...

Also, rumours abounding that the rest of the games will be using VAR

[JHikka]

Rollins is definitely not an insider. He's sour that he hasn't been included in the inner-circle of Canadian soccer media for the past five years. It's been pretty widely proven that he just sort of makes things up on the fly.

Wheeler at least works with people who have knowledge, but anything he says publicly is going to be for the purpose of driving clicks and comments. Grain of salt.

Only two options are BMO and THF really. SkyDome doesn't make sense and they can't risk a forfeit or postponement at Olympique. Neither have good playing surfaces.

CONCACAF has already basically confirmed that they'll be using VAR for the rest of qualifiers.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Wheeler at least works with people who have knowledge, but anything he says publicly is going to be for the purpose of driving clicks and comments. Grain of salt.

Only two options are BMO and THF really. SkyDome doesn't make sense and they can't risk a forfeit or postponement at Olympique. Neither have good playing surfaces.

CONCACAF has already basically confirmed that they'll be using VAR for the rest of qualifiers.

Wheeler is well in there with Herdman and the CSA, maybe they play him and maybe they don't.

I'm pretty sure SkyDome is fixed in baseball configuration and can't be moved. I just read some proof of that but I'll be damned if I can find it

Regardless of the veracity, it was interesting that Rollins said the players preferred outside. Where I live now in the past decade or so winter only begins around January 30. Hard to believe Toronto doesn't get cold then but I don't live there and I don't know.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by elly63

Hard to believe Toronto doesn't get cold then but I don't live there and I don't know.

It was 15C in Toronto two nights ago.

20 degrees warmer than Edmonton.

[WhipperSnapper]

It probably would be cheaper to convert BMO into a bubble of sorts than to convert Rogers Centre for soccer.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JHikka

It was 15C in Toronto two nights ago.

20 degrees warmer than Edmonton.

It's rather unlikely to be 15C in Toronto on Jan. 30 though.

[WhipperSnapper]

-15 though. Maybe it can set the new record!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

-15 though. Maybe it can set the new record!

It's always possible!

Though I gather the averages for Toronto on Jan. 30 are probably around -3 during the day and -9 at night?

[elly63]

Originally Posted by JHikka

It was 15C in Toronto two nights ago.

We just had our first sprinkle of snow

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by elly63

We just had our first sprinkle of snow

In Toronto or on a PEI fishing boat?

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Acajack

In Toronto or on a PEI fishing boat?

Close, and I am one of those folks who doesn't like Toronto being called East

[Tg11]

But considering Canada our next window of games

27th against Honduras away

30th against USA at home

February 2nd against El Salvador away


If we could win all 3 games in that window, that would give us 25 points in the next window which would probably be enough to qualify for Qatar directly and lock up our spot early

But here is hoping we can win all 3 games

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

But the decision to play the game in Edmonton at this time of the year (literally the coldest possible choice) left a sour taste in my mouth. So this team is not worthy of my time. Simple.

I'm with you on the travesty of playing a World Cup qualifying match in Edmonton in winter, but crikey, it's not the players' fault.

As mentioned upthread, leagues with colder weather take a winter break. How Canada hasn't made arrangements for an indoor venue for World Cup qualifying matches is embarrassing, and testament to how we aren't taking this seriously.