TORONTO — With Jan. 27 marking 500 days out from the 2026 World Cup kickoff, some 50-plus staff are fleshing out the Canadian end of the tournament at FIFA's Toronto office.
The office has been around for a year, although it took six months to get it to where it is now — a fully functioning space with more than a little character.
The entrance features a display of 14 official match balls dating back to the 1970 World Cup. A giant 2026 cut-out in the shape of the FIFA World Cup trophy provides a unique photo op. Maple Leaf motifs decorate the converted factory, which is getting busier by the day.
Peter Montopoli, chief tournament officer for the Canadian end, says the staff numbers will soon reach 80, with another 600 to 700 involved during the event itself.
A lot has happened since Montopoli, then Canada Soccer's general secretary, and Victor Montagliani, then Canada Soccer's incoming president, hashed out the idea of bidding for the men's World Cup at a 2011 dinner at a Vancouver restaurant with Walter Sieber, director-general of sports at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and a man plugged into the world governing body of soccer.
"When we announced in May 2012 … it wasn't actually accepted very well by a few journalists in this city, who kind of laughed at it and scoffed at it," said Montagliani, who still keeps one of those negative articles in his desk.
Montagliani, now president of CONCACAF and a FIFA vice-president, looks forward to the 2026 tournament — an expanded 48-team, 104-game colossus co-hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico — and its legacy.
He calls it a "seminal moment … that I think is going to push the game to the next level."
"What I see is (that) '26, quite frankly, is really the beginning of the next era for the game in our country. It's not the culmination of it," Montagliani told a media roundtable Monday.
"Hosting a World Cup is like nothing any of us (know). I don't even think I know what it's going to be like. And I've put on a few of these things. And I still don't know. I think I'm underestimate the impact this (tournament) is going to be. And if I'm underestimating, the person on the street is underestimating it too."
Staff at the Toronto office are working on everything from stadium and venue operations, and safety and security to commercial, legal, finance and government relations.
They work in conjunction with FIFA offices in Miami and Mexico as well as the FIFA head office in Zurich.
Canada and Mexico, which has three host cities to Canada’s two, will each host 13 matches with the U.S. staging the remaining 78 across its 11 host cities. Toronto and Vancouver will each host five opening-round matches plus a round-of-32 knockout match. Vancouver will also stage a round-of-16 game.
FIFA plans to open a tournament office in Vancouver in the second quarter of 2025. Both Canadian offices will be walking distance to their local venues: Toronto's BMO Field and B.C. Place Stadium.
Montopoli and his staff have a detailed timeline, covering everything from the tournament draw to unveiling of mascots, official songs and posters.
FIFA is encouraging fans interested in tournament tickets to register via FIFA.com. Hospitality packages are already open and other packages are expected next September, with single-game tickets to follow after the draw in early December 2025.
There is much to be done, starting with the two Canadian host stadiums.
A ring of permanent suites is under construction at B.C. Place. BMO Field will get an additional 17,750 seats, bringing total capacity to around 45,735 seats, with the north and south ends expanded.
Not all the new seats will be permanent, but some of the new suites at BMO Field will be. Montopoli says his staff are working with the City of Toronto, which owns the stadium, and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which manages the facility, to decide what upgrades will permanent.
"They're still in discussion with that, because they still have to work through the economics of it" he said.
Improvements include new video boards. And while some of the expanded BMO stands will be temporary, the additions will be proper seats not benches.
Montagliani says every stadium among the 16 host cities is getting upgrades, even AT&T Stadium in Arlington, the US$1.2-billion-dollar home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Vancouver has already announced its tournament training facilities will be at Killarney Park and Memorial South Park once upgrades are complete. While Toronto has yet to confirm its training venues, with fields at Etobicoke’s Centennial Park one option, Montopoli says they will be finalized in the first quarter of 2025.
FIFA's Miami-based tournament traffic lead is currently visiting the city, a "world-class expert" who has done World Cups, Olympic Games and the 2015 Pan-American Games in Toronto, said Montopoli.
"She's fully aware of everything, Toronto's transport issues," he added.
Fans can expect a much different landscape around the stadiums than normal, with an expanded secure zone.
"This is not the Grey Cup. This is the World Cup and it's going to be completely different from an operational logistical standpoint, logistical standpoint, than anything we've ever experienced," Montagliani said.
And while holding a tournament in 16 host cities and three countries is vastly different from the 2022 tournament in Qatar, which had all eight stadiums in and around the capital of Doha, Montagliani says a lot of FIFA's World Cup blueprint can be transferred.
"A venue is a venue is a venue," he said.
Teams will have their own base camps during the group stage with nearby cities grouped in clusters. Toronto, for example, is linked to Philadelphia, Boston and New York, while Vancouver is grouped with Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2024.
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press