Organizing soccer friendlies ahead of World Cup comes with a lot of moving parts

Organizing a soccer friendly takes more than a phone call and a glance at the calendar. And doing it on the eve of the FIFA World Cup adds to the Rubik’s Cube-like degree of difficulty. 

Canada Soccer announced Tuesday the 29th-ranked Canadian men will host No. 74 Iceland and No. 47 Tunisia during the March international window, with both games at Toronto’s BMO Field. The visiting teams will each play a second match against No. 83 Haiti in Toronto during the window.

A meeting with No. 52 Uzbekistan on June 1 in Edmonton had previously been announced. The final piece in the puzzle is Canada’s final World Cup warm-up, a game in Montreal June 5 or 6 against a yet-to-be-named European opponent.

Securing those fixtures involved dealing with a lot of moving parts. 

According to Canada Soccer chief executive officer Kevin Blue, the keystone in planning the March and June games was playing at home — to help build anticipation for the tournament, to showcase the Canadian men and provide fans unable to get World Cup tickets a chance to see the team in action. 

Staging games at home is also a revenue-generator, although Blue says Canada Soccer could have made more by playing the games in Europe. Overseas options were turned down.

Another priority was finding suitable opponents, whose style of play fitted the Canadian team’s needs in preparing for the tournament.

Weather and travel also played a part in organizing the March window.

“We examined Montreal and had extensive conversations with the stakeholders in Montreal,” said Blue. “At the end of the day, the decision was made after looking extensively at weather data that Montreal would have been a higher risk in terms of weather at that time of year.”

BMO Field, with its underground heating and other bells and whistles, can stage games in cold weather.

Possible opponents concluded travel to Vancouver was “not feasible.”

Calendar clashes also figured into the planning. Some 22 countries are already occupied with World Cup playoffs in March. Others had already booked matches of their own. Plus Canada had little interest in facing teams it had already played.

“This shortens the list,” said Blue. 

Given such restrictions and factors, Canada Soccer staff started going down the FIFA rankings to find available teams that fit the bill.

Blue points to Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national teams operations, and Mathieu Chamberland, chief of soccer operations, as the “puzzle masters” in securing the friendlies.

With leagues around the world dealing with busy schedules, making the trip to Canada was daunting to some. And like Canada, some sides want to play at home to reward their own fans.

With teams wanting to play two games during the March window, Canada Soccer had to find another suitable side to add to the equation. Enter Haiti.

The June window came with its own issues.

Blue says many World Cup-bound teams have elected to play a sendoff game at home at the start of the June window, to reward their fans. And Canada’s availability at the back end of the window is limited, given its June 12 start day and FIFA’s requirement that teams have to report to five days ahead of kickoff. 

Once Canada Soccer finds an opponent that ticks all those logistical boxes, there is still more work to do. 

“There are significant financial considerations when you are the host of a friendly,” said Blue.

An appearance fee for the visiting team has to be agreed on, not to mention taking care of accommodation and ground costs with sometimes travel costs. In the wake of Argentina hoisting the 2022 World Cup, reports suggested US$5 million was the starting point to arrange a friendly with the champions.

“It’s market value, right … The appearance fee expense for those type of games is extraordinary,” said Blue. “And there’s a big competitive market for those teams to come.”

Canada opens World Cup play on June 12 against a European qualifier in Toronto before heading to Vancouver to face No. 56 Qatar and No. 18 Switzerland on June 18 and 24, respectively.

Tunisia, ranked 47th in the world, qualified for the World Cup in impressive fashion. The team known as the Carthage Eagles went unbeaten in topping its African qualifying group with a 9-0-1 record.

No. 74 Iceland missed out on qualification after finishing third in its European qualifying group at 2-3-1. France booked its ticket by topping the group while runner-up Ukraine advanced to the UEFA playoffs.

Haiti, ranked 83rd in the world, has also qualified for the World Cup.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2026.