Canadian soccer fans are all over the map
Favourites chosen based on roots, age, political biases and quirkiness, poll finds
The different loyalties of multicultural Canadians are on display in an Angus Reid Institute poll that shows England, Brazil and France are the remaining World Cup 2018 teams with the most Canadian fans.
Asked “which one or two teams are you cheering for?” Canadians offered diverse answers based on whether they are anglophone or francophone, young or old, Conservative or NDP, Albertan or British Columbian.
About 13 million Canadians are watching the FIFA World Cup in Russia, according to the poll. That’s 37 per cent of the national population (including an equal proportion of British Columbians).
With Canada being home to people of more than 250 ethnic origins, the flags of virtually every participating 2018 World Cup nation can at times be spotted waving from cars cruising the streets of Canada’s major cities.
When it comes to the world’s most watched sporting event, Canadians seem to be choosing their favourites based on a national team’s quality, their own cultural roots, political biases, age and sheer quirkiness.
Nationally, 18 per cent of Canadians following the World Cup are cheering for the success of England, 12 per cent for Brazil and seven per cent for France.
The English team is most popular in anglophone Ontario, while the French team is more favoured in francophone Quebec. Fans of Brazil’s team are spread across English- and French-speaking Canada.
Other significant findings from the Angus Reid online survey of 1,268 Canadians reveal that half of us are bothered by corruption in global soccer, at the same time 46 per cent are looking forward to Canada co-hosting the 2026 World Cup (with the U.S. and Mexico).
B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan, despite the World Cup excitement, will be pleased to discover that 68 per cent of British Columbians support his government’s decision to withdraw Vancouver as a host city for 2026 — since FIFA did not clarify how much it would cost local taxpayers.
The Angus Reid poll confirms Canadians have complicated feelings about the World Cup, for which the country’s team has not qualified for since 1986.
That includes the puzzle of why many Canadians value the Brazilian team, despite this country being home to precious few Brazilians. Something similar goes for the Portugal squad led by star striker Ronaldo, which was second in popularity among Canadians before it was ousted.
Super-diverse British Columbians, as usual, are outliers compared to other Canadians. Eighteen per cent of B.C. residents who have been following the World Cup ranked their favourite team as Germany, with 13 per cent opting for Mexico, both of which are out of the tournament, plus 11 per cent for England.
B.C. has a solid portion of people of German and British origin, but since there are very few people of Mexican background in B.C. that doesn’t explain the cheers for the Central American country, even while it must be noted it’s a popular destination for snowbirds.
It’s also intriguing that British Columbians have sharply different loyalties from committed World Cup watchers in neighbouring Alberta, where 29 per cent of the population is gung-ho for England.
It’s too bad that China, India or the Philippines are not at the World Cup, since they are the major immigrant-source countries of the more than seven million Canadians who are foreign born.
As it is, though, South Korean and Iranian teams did qualify for the big event in Russia. And they were each the favourites of less than one per cent of Canadians, which roughly corresponds to the proportion of Koreans and Iranians in Canada’s population.
There are intriguing connections between partisan Canadian politics and soccer loyalties found by the Angus Reid survey, which was conducted between June 25 and 27 and has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The survey found that Canadians who voted for the Liberals in the last federal election are most likely to cheer for Portugal and England, while Conservatives have been rooting most heartily for England and Germany. Meanwhile, even though proportionally fewer federal NDPers are intensely interested in the World Cup, they tend to support Spain, Germany and Brazil. Greens appear to applaud Portugal and Switzerland, while Bloc Quebecois voters seem to like France and Russia (although the survey sample size for these two small parties is low).
Canadians’ age might be one of the biggest factors in who they like and how they approach the World Cup, especially for the many Canadian youths who have been increasingly playing amateur soccer instead of hockey, football and baseball.
“Younger Canadians (those aged 18-34) are much more likely to be paying attention to the World Cup,” says an Angus Reid news release. Almost 50 per cent of millennial males are watching the event, as are 38 per cent of millennial females. Young adults of both sexes are most likely to cheer for Brazil.
The World Cup final is July 15, in Moscow. Canadians are not likely to be cheering as a bloc for any team.
Younger Canadians (those aged 18-34) are much more likely to be paying attention to the World Cup.