"Break the sport into the mainstream." That's the goal James Johnson has set for Canadian soccer, and for once, the timing actually lines up with the ambition.
Johnson, commissioner of the Canadian Premier League and Group CEO of Canadian Soccer Business, is betting that co-hosting the 2026 World Cup — the first 48-team edition, running June 11 to July 19 across Canada, the United States, and Mexico — is the kind of structural opportunity that doesn't come twice. Canada last hosted nothing close to this. Their men's team has appeared at exactly two World Cups before (1986 and 2022). This is different territory.
The ingredients are real, even if the magic isn't guaranteed
There's a genuine case to be made. Alphonso Davies at Bayern Munich. Jonathan David at Juventus. A men's side coached by Jesse Marsch that qualified on merit. A women's program with genuine global pedigree. These aren't manufactured talking points — they're players who actually start for big clubs in top leagues.
The CPL itself has been around since 2019 and is, by Johnson's own admission, still maturing. The league hasn't yet broken through in a country where the NHL, CFL, and NBA all compete for the same eyeballs. A home World Cup creates the kind of four-year conversation no marketing budget can replicate — but converting casual World Cup interest into sustained CPL viewership is a different problem entirely. Plenty of countries have hosted tournaments and seen the domestic game plateau shortly after.
Still, Johnson sees the window clearly: "All the right ingredients are there. It's about bringing those ingredients together and making magic happen."
The offside experiment no one saw coming
Beyond the World Cup narrative, the CPL has done something genuinely unusual — it's become a testing ground for FIFA's experimental "daylight" offside rule, long championed by Arsene Wenger in his role as FIFA's head of global football development. In April, a goal under the new rule was allowed in a professional match for the first time. Ever.
That's not a footnote. Whether the rule ultimately changes the laws of the game or quietly disappears, having a league at the center of that conversation gives the CPL a global profile that goes beyond its current size and viewership numbers. It's a smart positioning play.
"We want to be part of a global conversation that is driving the sport forward," Johnson said. Whether the 2026 tournament delivers the commercial breakthrough he's projecting, that part he's already managed.
