Federal financial support for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup

This year from June 11 to July 19, Canada will co-host the FIFA Men’s World Cup with the United States and Mexico. The World Cup will include 104 games with 7 games to be played in Vancouver and 6 games to be played in Toronto.

Across all levels of government, Canadian spending on the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is expected to be $1,066 million, with $473 million in funding coming from the federal government and the remainder being provided by other levels of government.

Prior to Budget 2025, federal government spending on the World Cup included an initial grant of $3.6 million to Canada Soccer to support preparation for the event and $220 million in grants provided to the City of Toronto ($104 million) and the Government of British Columbia ($116 million) to assist with city-level hosting duties (announced in 2024).[^1] Budget 2025 and the 2026 Spring Economic Update (SEU) allocated an additional $100 million and $146 million, respectively, in funding to provide essential federal services during the World Cup. Of the funding in the SEU, $145 million is expected to be transferred to other levels of government to assist the host cities with security-related costs ($100 million for the Province of British Columbia and $45 million for the City of Toronto) with the final $1 million expected to go towards Invest in Canada for investment promotion.[^2] Finally, Public Safety Canada also allocated $3.6 million from its existing operating budget for expenses related to the FIFA World Cup. Table 1 provides a breakdown of total spending by item and level of government. Finance Canada does not expect there to be any additional federal expenditure items.

Total cost of hosting and federal support

As of April 2026, the most recent municipal and provincial budgets had indicated that, including federal grants, the City of Toronto intended to spend a total of $380 million on its city-level hosting costs while the Province of British Columbia intended to spend a total of $578 million.[^3] Any city-level hosting costs exceeding the grants provided by the federal government are expected to be paid for by other levels of government.

It is currently unclear whether the federal contributions to the host cities announced in the SEU are covering additional city-level expenses that were not previously announced or whether the federal government is covering a larger share of existing planned spending for the cities. This note assumes no increase in the overall city-level hosting costs compared to the amounts in the most recent budget announcements as of April 2026.

Net of the $220 million and $145 million federal transfers, this would imply a remaining cost of approximately $231 million for Toronto and $362 million for Vancouver. However, updates to municipal and provincial spending plans may be announced in the coming weeks, implying changes to the expected costs for other levels of government. Of the $473 million in planned federal expenditures, $96 million had been spent as of January 2026.[^4]

Both host cities signed agreements with FIFA outlining detailed expectations and hosting responsibilities. In response to information request IR0878, the federal government confirmed it had not signed any contracts or agreements with FIFA in relation to the 2026 Men’s World Cup. However, letters of guarantee were provided to FIFA by federal ministers as part of the 2018 World Cup bid. These letters made commitments to providing essential federal services including facilitating the entry of FIFA players and staff into Canada, issuing temporary visas and permits, ensuring compliance with federal labour laws, enhancing safety and security including security for internationally protected persons, and protecting FIFA commercial rights in Canada.[^5] The majority of funding allocated to the FIFA World Cup under Budget 2025 and the 2026 Spring Economic Update is for security-related items. Table 2 provides a provisional breakdown of funding by department or agency.

Based on federal budgets and documents, we estimate the amount of support for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup that would be classified as capital expenditure under the new federal Capital Budgeting Framework used to calculate the government’s fiscal anchor respecting operational spending.[^6] Most of these capital expenditures are for stadium improvements and the creation of FIFA training sites. We estimate that capital expenditures provided by the federal government total $128.1 million. Of note, this amount will not be included in federal capital expenditures, as presented in the Public Accounts.

Comparative cost analysis

Table 4 compares per-game spending across previous World Cups, drawing heavily on past analysis by Müller et al. (2022). Based on the most recent estimates of costs across all levels of government, Canada is expected to spend $82.0 million per game (or 59.6 USD). Using this frame, it appears Canada’s costs are roughly in line with what was spent per game on previous tournaments.

Data Sources

City of Toronto Hosting Costs
City of Toronto Budget, 2025 Program Summary, FIFA World Cup 2026 Toronto

Province of British Columbia hosting costs
Province of British Columbia News, Provincial FIFA Cost Update Backgrounder 1

Hosting costs by previous FIFA World Cup
Müller, Martin, David Gogishvili, and Sven Daniel Wolfe. "The structural deficit of the Olympics and the World Cup: Comparing costs against revenues over time." Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 54.6 (2022): 1200-1218.

Exchange rates by country
Federal Reserve Board and Haver Analytics