Peter Montopoli, chief tournament officer for FIFA Canada, credits his colleagues for executing a successful World Cup that saw the country rally behind its team and the event itself.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
Peter Montopoli, the man in charge of Canada’s end of the World Cup, is enjoying a quiet victory lap.
Given the years that Montopoli, the former Canada Soccer general secretary, and Victor Montagliani, a former Canada Soccer president who now doubles as CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president, spent in bringing the men’s soccer showcase to Canada, it’s understandable.
“We proved in Canada we can do this,” Montopoli, Canada’s chief tournament officer, said in an interview. “There were a lot of people who doubted Victor and I, that this could be done in Canada. ‘Why Canada? You don’t have what you need to do for the sport.’
“We proved them wrong.”
Montopoli’s hope is the success of the tournament north of the border will spur on businesses to invest in the game and the media to showcase it.
FIFA World Cup final scores record TV ratings in Canada
And that the World Cup will open the door to Canada hosting other big events.
“Maybe it’s time for the visionaries to get together and say, ‘Maybe it’s a Summer Olympic bid,’” said Montopoli.
The Olympic soccer tournament helps drive ticket sales for the Games, he noted. And Canadians flocked through the World Cup turnstiles.
FIFA reports that 6,810,966 fans attended matches at the 16 venues across Canada, Mexico and the U.S. with a 99.7 per cent occupancy rate.
With the U.S. hosting 78 of the 104 matches, it’s not surprising that Americans bought the most tickets. But Canadians showed their interest by ranking second, ahead of Mexico and some 200 other countries.
Montopoli, shown with World Cup mascots at a spring event in Victoria, wonders if a Summer Olympic bid could be in Canada's future.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
Montopoli sees the road to the World Cup as a 21-year journey, starting with former Canada Soccer COO Kevan Pipe spearheading the drive to build BMO Field, which led to Canada hosting the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup and Major League Soccer coming north of the border in the form of Toronto FC.
As general secretary from 2008 through 2021, Montopoli did a lot of the heavy lifting to help build Canada’s reputation as a worthy host in successfully staging the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup and 2015 Women’s World Cup.
There was success on the field as well.
The Canadian women won Olympic bronze in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016, and gold in Tokyo in 2021. The men qualified for Qatar four years before seeing World Cup action on home soil.
“The journey’s complete,” said Montopoli.
Montopoli’s work isn’t done yet. He is gradually closing down the Canadian operation while helping author the post-mortem north of the border.
And with 65 “functional areas,” ranging from security and tickets to public relations, there is plenty to summarize. The findings will serve as a “road map” for future editions, according to Montopoli.
Cathal Kelly: Forever trailing in European soccer's wake, Canada should just stick to hockey
The 2030 tournament promises to be even more complicated, with Spain, Portugal and Morocco serving as co-hosts and “centenary celebration” matches to be held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. And with FIFA exploring the idea of increasing the competition to 64 countries, the degree of difficulty could be ratcheted up further in years to come.
Reports that FIFA president Gianni Infantino is exploring selling stakes in the World Cup to private investors could mean the tournament is in for another quantum leap down the road.
Montopoli restricted his comments to the Canadian end of the competition, saying the learnings from this summer’s tournament start with the powers that be.
“If you’re going to do it in more than one country, you’ve got to make sure that the three governments get along,” he said. “And we did.
“It can’t be one thing in one country and something totally different in another,” he added.
Exuberant fans in Vancouver watch Canada's 6-0 demolition of Qatar on June 18.Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail
As for the legacy funding that World Cup hosts traditionally receive from FIFA, Montopoli says more will be known come year-end with numbers still being crunched. It’s expected Canada Soccer will use a good portion of the money to help finance its planned national training centre.
Tournament staff in Canada are moving on. From a high of 409 full-time staff, the number is dropping to 20 to 30 and will be down to perhaps 10 or less come Oct. 1. Montopoli himself will work through the end of the year.
As for the tournament itself, Montopoli is unabashedly proud.
“I think what we produced for those 39 days and 104 matches was [the] best in the world ever. Not only Canada but Mexico especially and the United States, we should be very, very proud of what we achieved here.”