{"id":21293,"date":"2018-08-08T18:43:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T22:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21293"},"modified":"2018-08-08T18:43:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T22:43:34","slug":"aurora-fc-director-says-2026-world-cup-will-have-huge-impact-on-canadian-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-fc-director-says-2026-world-cup-will-have-huge-impact-on-canadian-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora FC director says 2026 World Cup will have \u201chuge impact\u201d on Canadian soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though still eight years in the future, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is arguably already changing the landscape of Canadian soccer.
\nAfter a successful bid for the world\u2019s largest sporting event went to the trio of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, under the banner of \u201cUnited 2026\u201d in April, the Canadian soccer community immediately began speculation on Canada\u2019s possible qualification.
\nYet, according to Aurora FC technical director Dave DiPlacido, the impact begins at the base of youth soccer.
\n\u201cJust leading up to it\u2026the amount of coverage and press it\u2019s going to bring to the game,\u201d said DiPlacido. \u201cAlready there\u2019s been huge strides in growing the game, I think that this is just going to add more fuel to the fire.\u201d
\nWith the addition of professional teams across the country, including the newly-formed Canadian Professional League set to kick off next spring, DaPlacido has seen the game grow considerably since his minor league days with the Aurora Youth Soccer Club.
\nAccording to the Canadian Soccer Association, the amount of players registered for youth soccer in Canada in 2017 reached a total over 800,000 for the first time, surpassing hockey as the number-one youth sport in the country.
\nAnd now, with the world\u2019s best set to take on stages across the nation in 2026, those numbers could grow at a record pace.
\n\u201cI think this is just going to add to that,\u201d said DiPlacido. \u201cFor young players that are aspiring to do things in the game, this is just more fuel.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to inspire a generation of footballers to want to compete, to want to get to the next level.\u201d
\nWith the winning bid still in its infancy, the FIFA Council is yet to announce which hosts, if any, will receive an automatic qualification into the tournament. Canada last appeared in the men\u2019s World Cup in Mexico in 1986, finishing dead last in the group stages while going winless: their only appearance to date.
\nYet with the growing stardom of young athletes like Alphonso Davies, a Vancouver Whitecaps superstar set to make his European debut next season, DiPlacido said he sees \u201ca lot of quality\u201d in Canada\u2019s up-and-coming footballers.
\n\u201cWe have challenges in the country, obviously with the size and trying to identify the top players and bring them together in the proper environment, but I think that\u2019s changing now with some of the professional academies,\u201d said DiPlacido, referencing the developmental programs in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. \u201cThat, and with the Canadian Professional League coming in next year, that\u2019s going to allow more opportunities for more players.\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re as far off as people think. Obviously I\u2019m a little biased, I see a lot of the young players on a daily basis, I just feel they need something to strive towards and this could maybe be something that helps everyone in the game.\u201d
\nWhile the women\u2019s national side has seen considerable success in recent years, finishing sixth as the home squad in the 2015 World Cup and earning a pair of bronzes in back-to-back Olympic Games, the men haven\u2019t fared as well: Canada currently ranks 79th in the world, just behind much smaller countries like Macedonia and Ivory Coast.
\nYet DiPlacido said he hopes Canada can qualify for the 2026 tournament, even if they don\u2019t earn the automatic bye.
\n\u201cThey will be increasing the number of teams for the tournament, so that bodes well for our chances. We\u2019re doing a lot of good things for grassroots soccer in this country now, there\u2019s a lot of quality from the sixteen, eighteen, twenty-year olds.\u201d
\nDiPlacido said he was \u201cunder the impression\u201d that the trio of countries would win the bid before the actual announcement in June, but was still ecstatic at the outcome.
\n\u201cUntil it actually happens, you don\u2019t really realize the amount of an impact it\u2019s going to have on our country and our soccer in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though still eight years in the future, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is arguably already changing the landscape of Canadian soccer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5xr","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 17:48:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}