FOOTBALL
101
Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or new to the sport - Football 101 is here to help you understand the origins, terms, and rules of the game we play. Let’s celebrate 2026 together as we hit a milestone 50-year anniversary for our club, and cheer on Team Canada as our country jointly hosts the World Cup!
Canada’s Soccer Association
Canada is known as a hockey nation, given that majority of our country is covered in snow and ice for most of the year. However, the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) has been in charge of soccer in our country for over a century, having been founded in Winnipeg in July of 1912 under the name “The Dominion of Canada Football Association” (DCFA). By contrast, Hockey Canada (in it’s current form) came out of a merger between Hockey Canada (founded in 1968) and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (founded in 1914).
The DCFA initially joined on as a FIFA member later in the year of 1912, but resigned from the organization in 1926. After WW2, the DCFA rejoined FIFA for good in 1948. A series of name changes over the decades led to the official name of the Canadian Soccer Association in 1971.
Our Footballing Roots
Soccer is recorded to have been played in what would become Canada as early as 1859 in Toronto, in New Westminster (now part of Vancouver) in 1862 and in Victoria in 1865.
After Confederation, multiple football associations sprung up across the different provinces;
the Western Football Association (1880 in Ontario)
Newfoundland Football League (1896)
Manitoba Football Association (1896)
Ontario Football Association (1901)
Saskatchewan Football Association (1905)
Province of Quebec Football Association (1911)
Alberta Football Association (1911)
Golden Galt
Football was introduced as an official IOC sport at the 1900 Summer Olympics. Nations were represented through club teams, and while no medals were officially awarded, Upton Park FC (representing Great Britain) won the first Olympic Football Tournament.
Canada earned the first official gold medal in football four years later at the 1904 Summer Olympics when Galt FC represented our country, defeating two teams from the hosting United States. They were inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2004, celebrating the centenary of the historic result.
Canada Women’s National Team
The Canadian Women’s team was started in 1986 with a budget of $12,000. Their first international game was played in Minnesota against the United States’ National team. The US won the opening match, but the Canadians won the second by a score of 2-1 off the foot of Geri Donnelly who scored the brace.
FIFA’s first international tournament for women came in 1988, where Canada reached the quarter-finals before being defeated by Sweden. The success of the tournament led to the creation of the FIFA Women’s World Cup for 1991, however, Canada failed to qualify leading to the team almost folding and not playing a match for two years.
The team would reform for the 1993 CONCACAF Women’s Invitational Tournament where they finished second, and they finished second a year later at the 1994 CONCACAF Women’s Championship - earning them a qualification spot for the 1995 Women’s World Cup. The women would exit the tournament at the group stage and subsequently not qualify for the first women’s tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics, as qualification was given to the top seven teams at the World Cup.
The Women’s best finish at the Women’s World Cup was 4th at the 2003 tournament, but the team has been extremely successful on the international stage in other tournaments;
Olympics:
Gold (2020)
Bronze (2012, 2016)
CONCACAF Women’s Championship
Champions (1998, 2010)
Runner’s Up (1991, 1994, 2002, 2006, 2018, 2022)
Third Place (1993)
Pan American Games
Champions (2011)
Runner’s Up (2003)
Third Place (2007)
On the World Stage
Canada Men’s National Team
Canada first competed to qualify for the World Cup in 1957, playing games against Mexico and the United States. Canada won their two games against the United States, but failed to score in their two games against eventual group winner and qualifier Mexico.
The Canadian Men’s team would qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 1986, playing in a group against France, the Soviet Union, and Hungary. Canada would be held scoreless, and bow out of the competition at the group stage after three successive defeats.
It would take us over 30 years before our country would return to the World Cup, reaching the group stages in 2022 in Qatar. Canada’s first ever goal scored at the World Cup came off of the foot of Edmontonian Alphonso Davies against Croatia. However, the team would again exit the tournament after suffering three more defeats to Belgium, Croatia, and Morocco.
Canada’s World Cup
In 2026, Canada is jointly hosting the World Cup alongside the United States and Mexico. Canada earned their first ever world cup point on June 12, in a 1-1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On June 18 Canada made history, winning for the first time in the World Cup at home in Vancouver 6-0 over Qatar. Jonathan David scored a hat-trick, and the team became the first CONCACAF nation to score six goals in a single World Cup match.
June 24 marked a historic day for the Men’s National Team, as Canada progressed to the knock-out rounds for the first time as the runners-up of Group B, falling 2-1 to group winner Switzerland.