By Daniel Béland

May 31, 2026

At a time when Canada is seeking to attract more foreign investment and tourism while bolstering its international leadership role as a middle power — including by tightening its transcontinental bond with soccer-mad Europe — the 2026 World Cup promises to provide the sort of unprecedented soft-power value that dwarfs even the Olympic Games.

And, for the same reason that cities compete to host the Olympics as a potent global PR exercise — think of the incalculable soft-power Britain-boost of Queen Elizabeth and Daniel Craig as James Bond “parachuting” into the London Games in 2012, or Céline Dion channelling Edith Piaf from the Eiffel Tower in 2024 — hosting the World Cup showcases a national brand amid an adrenaline-drenched, globally shared experience.

In the case of the 2026 World Cup, Canada is co-hosting alongside Mexico and the United States, with the games taking place from June 11th to July 19th.

It will be the largest tournament in the history of FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, which was created in France back in 1904 is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, and most recently generated global headlines for its absurdist sense of humour in awarding Donald Trump the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize” after he was snubbed by the Nobel Committee.

The 2026 World Cup will feature 48 countries in a total of 104 games held across three countries and 16 cities. While the United States will host 78 games across 11 cities, Canada and Mexico will each host 13 games. The Mexican games will take place in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, and the Canadian games in Vancouver and Toronto.

At a time when the future of the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) remains precarious in the context of the trade war initiated by Trump and its ongoing negotiations, the World Cup could serve as an object lesson in collaboration among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Initially, each of these three countries considered bidding individually to host the event on its own but FIFA’s dramatic increase in the number of participating countries from 32 to 48 created an incentive for the United States, Canada, and Mexico to put forward a unified bid that would allow them to host the 2026 World Cut together.

In April 2017, when Trump had been in office just three months and the negotiations to update the North American Free Trade Agreement were a month away from launching, Canada, Mexico, and the United States announced their unified bid.

The following year, in Moscow at the 68th FIFA Congress, the unified North American bid easily won against Morocco’s single-country bid and, for the first time, three countries would co-host the World Cup.

Despite the trade tensions and public health anxieties, if the World Cup proves successful, it will show that Canada, Mexico, and the United States can still do things together.

At the time, few would have imagined that, fewer than six years later, on the eve of the 2026 World Cup, Canada, Mexico, and the United States would co-host, and CUSMA would already be facing an existential threat in the context of a second Trump term even more disruptive to global trade and the geopolitical status quo than was his first.

Meanwhile, a more practical threat looming over the World Cup is the fast-growing Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which led the government of Canada to reduce travel and immigration from multiple countries in Central Africa while citing the upcoming World Cup as a key reason.

According to federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel, Canada took these steps as a way to be “aligned” with both Mexico and the United States ahead of the World Cup.

While North American economic and trade integration may be under attack, some continental public health coordination seems to exist in the context of this co-hosted global sporting event, although it remains to be seen whether these efforts will prove effective, especially in light of early mishaps and criticisms.

Despite the trade tensions and public health anxieties, if the World Cup proves successful, it will show that Canada, Mexico, and the United States can still do things together.

More important for Canada, the fact that it will host 13 games will generate enormous global media attention, further enhancing — barring an organizational snafu or some other unforeseen event — its already highly positive global image, which is a growing source of soft power.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and the last final match of the World Cup — in 2022 between Argentina and France, Argentina won thanks to Lionel Messi, this year captaining the team — was watched by 1.5 billion people worldwide, nearly 12 times more than the U.S. Super Bowl.

As with Mexico and the United States, as a host country, Canada’s national soccer team automatically qualified for the World Cup, making it only the third time in history it will participate in the event. At the last World Cup in 2022, Canada’s team qualified for the first time in 36 years but lost its three games (respectively against Belgium, Croatia, and Morocco) and finished last it its group with zero points.

This year, Canada will play against these three counties within the Group B: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar, and Switzerland. Because that group excludes top tournament contenders such as Argentina and France, Canada does have a real chance to win its first ever World Cup game but also perhaps advance to the knockout round.

Even if our national team does not reach that stage of the competition, its presence in the World Cup alone and the fact that we are co-hosting will not only provide excellent visibility to Canada but will give the global cult of soccer — especially for so many kids enrolled in the game across this country — unprecedented exposure here.

At the same time, as Canada’s Ambassador to Egypt, Ulrich Sharron, wrote recently, by co-hosting the World Cup, Canada “underscores its role as a partner others can depend on, whether advancing global initiatives, strengthening economic ties, or addressing shared challenges.”

That in itself is a victory, regardless of how well Canada’s national team performs on the field.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Daniel Béland is professor of political science and director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University.