Team Canada arrives at Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport for the FIFA World Cup 2026 on Sunday.Cole Burston/Getty Images
While Canada kicks off its end of the FIFA World Cup at 3 p.m. ET Friday, Peter Montopoli will be savouring the moment at 2:54.
That’s when O Canada is scheduled to be played.
“It’s a special time when you hear your anthem and you’re literally at the centre of the world – and the world is watching,” Montopoli, chief tournament officer for the Canadian end of the competition, said in an interview.
The 30th-ranked Canadian men open against No. 64 Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto in a matchup that could be a stiffer challenge than the FIFA rankings suggest. Bosnia-Herzegovina, which knocked off No. 37 Wales and No. 12 Italy via penalty shootouts in the European playoffs, boasts a mix of seasoned veterans and talented youth.
While Montopoli doesn’t have an exact audience number in mind for Friday’s contest, he has a firm sense on its scope.
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“This will be the largest broadcasted event out of our country in the history of our country,” he said. “Broadcasted meaning the size and scope globally.
“The eyeballs of the world will be on us at 3 p.m.”
And with 50 TV cameras at the lakefront stadium, the viewers should be well-served.
The expanded 48-team, 104-match tournament officially kicks off Thursday with a Mexican doubleheader: Mexico versus South Africa in Mexico City followed by South Korea-Czechia in Guadalajara.
The FIFA World Cup Trophy in unveiled during an event at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto earlier this year.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
After the Toronto game, the spotlight switches Friday night to the U.S.-Paraguay in Inglewood, Calif. The championship game goes July 19 at the 82,500-capacity MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Montopoli says the Toronto stadium, while the smallest among the 16 host cities, will show well.
“The stadium is what we thought it would be – really intimate,” he said.
Thanks to the addition of 16,100 temporary seats, with 7,100 in the south end and 9,000 in the north end, the 19-year-old venue will accommodate some 42,000 during the tournament.
Montopoli believes BMO Field, rebranded as Toronto Stadium during the tournament, offers a unique view.
Toronto's World Cup venue is the little stadium that grew
“You’re on top of the action. You can hear, you can feel and you can almost touch the players,” he said.
He also believes the players will appreciate the Toronto playing surface, saying tests have shown it promises to be the “gold standard” of pitches at this World Cup.
“I hate to say this but it’s probably never going to be any better than this, that’s for sure,” Montopoli said. “We put a lot of effort into this.”
Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium has been “significantly upgraded” with new panels on the giant video scoreboard, more hospitality options as well and perhaps, most importantly, a temporary grass pitch.
Montopoli and B.C. Premier David Eby share a laugh at a FIFA promotional event earlier this year.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
Montopoli will see plenty of both venues, shuttling across the country to take in the 13 games being staged in Canada.
The Bosnia-Herzegovina squad landed in Toronto on Sunday, with fans on highway overpasses welcoming its official team bus and police escort.
“It was wild,” said an enthusiastic Montopoli. “That was organic. Nobody said, ‘At this time, you’ve got to be at this place to do this thing.’ It just happened. … The manager of Bosnia couldn’t believe it.”
The Canadian team, having played Ireland to a 1-1 draw in its final warm-up match Friday in Montreal, also touched down in Toronto on Sunday.
The road to the men’s World Cup started some 15 years for Montopoli, then Canada Soccer’s general secretary.
In a viral video, members of Senegal’s national soccer team toss soccer balls and watch as they land on the pitch with a deadened bounce. The 17-second clip has garnered millions of views and shares since it was posted last week, sparking online criticism, posts and some news stories about the state of North America’s World Cup grass days before kickoff. Only it wasn’t a World Cup pitch at all. The Globe’s Andrea Woo explains.
“It’s been the thrill of a lifetime, really,” said Montopoli, a native of Port Colborne, Ont. “It’s an honour and [a] duty. Every day I just said to myself, ‘I just want to do something good for my country … and for football.’
“And I think at the end of the day we’re going to see that we’ve achieved it. Not me, it’s the group of people here that have been excellent here as FIFA ‘26 Canada.”
The seed for hosting the tournament was planted at a 2011 dinner Montopoli attended in Vancouver with Victor Montagliani, then Canada Soccer vice-president, and Walter Sieber, a veteran of both FIFA and Olympic competition.
Montagliani became Canada Soccer president in 2012, taking over as CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president in 2016. Montopoli, meanwhile, continued as Canada Soccer’s top administrator until December, 2021 when he took over his current FIFA role as Canada’s chief tournament officer.
FIFA awarded the tournament hosting rights to Canada, Mexico and the U.S. in 2018, choosing the so-called United Bid over that of Morocco.
Montopoli and Montagliani have proved to be an effective tag team, with Montopoli looking after the operational side and the well-connected Montagliani overseeing the political landscape.
As the world governing body of football, FIFA is well-versed in putting on tournaments. As such, host countries have an organizational framework to work off.
The 2026 host cities have worked daily off 65 “functional areas,” ranging from event safety and security to communication and public relations, in planning and executing their part of the tournament, according to Montopoli.
“Any event in any country is a jigsaw puzzle. It’s always that 65 [areas]. How are you working it through?”
“This one [with three co-hosts] is a 3-D jigsaw puzzle,” he added. “It’s very very difficult. And then you combine the nuance of a country and the nuance of government and it’s really complicated. And I think you need some really specialized people in order to be able to execute at that level.”
Toronto's BMO Field has been transformed into Toronto Stadium for the FIFA World Cup, with expanded seating pushing the venue's capacity to over 40,000 seats.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
There have been bumps in the road. The tournament ticketing system and pricing have come in for extensive criticism.
Montopoli believes the controversy largely stems from the fact that many ticket-buyers are not attuned to North American ticket policies such as dynamic pricing.
“It doesn’t mean that’s the right way, but we’re accustomed to that because that’s what we do every day. This was different because we were dealing with a global audience.”
One size clearly does not fit all.
A FIFA spokesman said Monday that more than 90 per cent of the ticket supply has been sold. The tournament is currently in its “last-minute sales phase,” the fourth and final ticket window.
After sitting through a countdown via FIFA’s ticket sale site Monday, the option presented for the Canada-Bosnia-Herzegovina game was a one-person $11,250 hospitality package with premium sideline seating, champagne on arrival and a “culinary experience” at the Pitchside Lounge. On-site parking was subject to availability.
Montopoli was part of the FIFA organization at the 2006 and 2010 tournaments in Germany and South Africa, respectively. He skipped the 2014 and ‘18 events in Brazil and Russia because he was working on the 2015 Women’s World Cup and the bid for the 2026 men’s event.
Each tournament has its own legacy, he said.
The German tournament, for example, was the first to offer fan festivals, a component that is now a World Cup fixture.
The interior of a renovated BC Place stadium is seen with the retractable roof closed ahead of the FIFA World Cup.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Montopoli has high hopes for Canada’s legacy.
“It’s time to give back to a sport that’s given a lot to our country at a grassroots level. … It’s time that we invest in the sport, we invest in the young kids, we invest in the national team programming, we invest in sport – in order for this sport to achieve where we believe it should be.
“I believe when the tournament starts on Thursday and the 39 days following, this sport will be different in our country.”
Four years ago he was in Qatar to observe the tournament ahead of Canada’s co-hosting role. While a different beast, with all eight stadiums dotted around the capital of Doha, the 2022 edition retained an important characteristic according to Montopoli.
“What I took away was no matter where the World Cup is, it’s a celebration,” he said.
As to his future, Montopoli says he has not looked beyond the tournament.
“If this is my last event, it’s pretty good, I think,” he said. “If it’s not, then I’ll look forward to the next one. But I don’t have any plans right now.
“I’ve enjoyed the journey. … And I’m very grateful that Canada and FIFA have given me this opportunity.”
Toronto will host six World Cup games, starting Friday. Canada’s largest city is welcoming the world and emphasizing its diversity.
The Associated Press
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to state that Peter Montopoli is a native of Port Colborne, Ont.