Nova Scotia’s burgeoning professional soccer club says the country earning a spot in the 2022 FIFA World Cup is going to change the sport in Canada forever.
Derek Martin, President of the HFX Wanderers Football Club, says our country’s first World Cup qualification in almost four decades is a huge boost to Canadian soccer.
Martin says the Canadian Premier League, of which the Wanderers are a part, was specifically created to grow Canadian soccer talent ahead of the 2026 World Cup, where Canada would be guaranteed a spot as a host country.
He says it was a happy surprise when the Canadian men’s team qualified for the World Cup through regular play this season.
“To beat that target by four years and have them be in the 2022 World Cup is amazing for all of us that are involved in the sport.”
The Canadian Premier League is the only active all-Canadian professional soccer league.
It was sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association in 2017, holding its first season in 2019.
There are professional Canadian soccer teams in two other leagues, Major League Soccer and MLS Next Pro, but they’re both sanctioned under the United States Soccer Federation.
Martin says the Canadian men qualifying for the World Cup in 2022 and having a guaranteed spot in 2026 gives them a great runway to 2030.
“It’s almost like now how the top soccer counties view the world cup. As it’s not whether we get in, it’s just preparing to do well,” he says. “I think the expectation now is that we don’t ever not make it.”
He says it’s a watershed moment in Canadian soccer, they’re looking to build a soccer culture and back-to-back World Cup runs means years of soccer being front and centre of the Canadian sports world.
Canada has only ever qualified for the World Cup once before, in 1986.
